Rhee In-jong, Samsung’s mobile chief technology officer and former Bixby chief, has resigned, Samsung confirmed Wednesday.



The former software chief for Samsung’s mobile division had expressed his wish to leave Samsung in July, citing personal reasons, the Korean tech firm said.





Caption: Rhee In-jong (Samsung Electronics)



During the firm’s shake-up last month, Samsung consolidated its software and hardware divisions for mobile devices and appointed Executive Vice President Roh Tae-moon as the chief of the combined division. Rhee was moved to take the role of chief technology officer to prepare for the future technologies of the firm’s mobile devices.



According to Samsung, Rhee notified staff of his departure in an email Tuesday. He reportedly said that he had begun to reflect on his situation, as his daughter was dispatched to Iraq in July as an officer of the US Army. He added that he felt “selfish.”



He went on to say that he felt he could not fulfill his role as a father properly while working as the mobile chief of Samsung.



Rhee, who was a professor of computer science at North Carolina State University, joined Samsung Electronics in 2011. He led the development of Samsung’s security solution Knox and mobile payment service Samsung Pay. He also headed the development of voice assistant Bixby.



By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)

