Samsung’s long-time mobile boss Koh Dong-Jin, better known in the West as DJ Koh, is the only one of the company’s top officials to completely miss out on any bonuses that HQ paid out to management for the first half of the year. South Korean media reports his high-ranking colleagues fared much better despite the crippling effects of the still-ongoing coronavirus pandemic weighing down the company’s overall performance.

E.g. Kwon Oh-hyun received a compensation package amounting to the equivalent of some $9.5 million in total, including $7.75 million in retirement pay. The former CEO and Vice Chairman hence retained his title of the company’s top earner, even though he stepped down from active management by 2018 and is presently only retained in an advisory role.

Samsung paid out hefty management bonuses despite global uncertainty

Kim Ki-nam was awarded about a billion won ($840,000) in compensation, including roughly $185,000 in bonus pay for his semiconductor leadership throughout the first half of 2020. Consumer Electronics chief Kim Hyun-seok, was compensated with an extra $135,000 on top of his $450,000 salary, whereas DJ Koh’s H1 2020 compensation package was in the same $600,000 ballpark even though it lacked performance bonuses, Korean media reports, citing Samsung’s latest investor disclosures. Samsung explained the lack of added incentives for Koh with the generally disappointing state of the company’s smartphone sales.

Half a year back, Roh Tae-moon took over Samsung’s smartphone business in Koh’s stead, allowing the latter to focus on overseeing the entirety of the IT and mobile communications unit. Given everything that’s been happening this year, Samsung’s second-quarter results were largely encouraging, but primarily due to strong chip performance and in spite of its struggles in the consumer electronics space.