[Exclusive] Kim Woochang Leaves Post as Presidential Office AI Secretary; Former Samsung Electronics Executive VP Lee Jisu Named Successor

National AI Policy Secretary Kim Woochang offers to resign to pursue academic research
His successor is former Samsung Electronics executive vice president Lee Jisu, who developed New Bixby

Kim Woochang, National AI Policy Secretary at the Presidential Office of Korea, left his post on Nov. 1. Lee Jisu, a former executive vice president at Samsung Electronics, was appointed as his successor.

According to the Presidential Office on Nov. 2, Kim recently offered to resign to pursue academic research and officially left his post on Nov. 1. Lee was appointed as the new secretary that day.

Lee Jisu, Blue House Secretary for National AI Policy

Lee graduated from Seoul National University's Department of Industrial Engineering and was one year ahead of Kim there. He later earned a doctorate in industrial and systems engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 2014, he was a professor at Purdue University in the United States, before joining Samsung Electronics' Wireless Business Division as an executive vice president in 2015 to lead its AI Strategy Group.

During his roughly 10 years at Samsung, Lee led the AI transformation of the Galaxy interface and strategic ecosystem partnerships with Google and Microsoft. In particular, he was in charge of developing the new AI voice assistant platform, New Bixby, announced in 2018.

With Lee's appointment, a corporate executive will lead the AI control tower at the Presidential Office in its second term. Lee Haemin, who was appointed senior secretary for AI Future Planning on Aug. 30, is also a former Google employee and served as chief product officer (CPO) of OpenSurvey in 2022.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.