Junior Lee meets with Fiat Chairman Elkann

By Kim Yoo-chul Lee Jae-yong, recently promoted to president of Samsung Electronics, is expected to increase his interactions with global business leaders. Ready to tackle his new duties, the 42-year-old and only son of group leader Lee Kun-hee, met Italian automaker Fiat Chairman John Elkann last week. ``Lee in his capacity as chief operating officer (COO) met with the chairman of Fiat to discuss a business partnership,’’ said a top-ranking industry executive, adding the outgoing Samsung SDI CEO Choi Chi-hun and the incoming SDI CEO Park Sang-jin also attended the meeting. A senior Samsung spokesman confirmed a high profile meeting but declined to name the carmaker. Samsung is concentrating resources to strengthen its business in batteries, solar cells and AMOLED as a way to find future growth engines. ``Lee will lead Samsung’s new businesses and the meeting with Fiat is one part of it,’’ said the executive, asking not to be identified. SB LiMotive, a joint venture with Samsung SDI and Germany’s Robert Bosch, recently announced that it will supply lithium-ion battery packs for the Fiat model, scheduled for launch in the United States in 2012. The Fiat 500EV, which debuted in January, is the first electric car manufactured by the Chrysler Group and the first electric car in the U.S. for the Turin, Italy-based Fiat. Chrysler and Fiat formed a strategic partnership last year, when Chrysler was filing for bankruptcy. Samsung, which has advanced chip and LCD technologies as the world’s top vendor, has a sharp competitive edge for batteries. In an earlier statement to mark the promotion of the junior Lee, Samsung said the COO will continue to foster Samsung’s strategically important businesses and prepare for the conglomerate’s future income sources. ``Lee is expected to spend more time looking into further business details by meeting with the presidents of the company’s key units and key executives of its global partners,’’ said another industry executive.

yckim@koreatimes.co.kr