Kwon Oh-chul, chief executive of Hynix Semiconductor, on Friday was inaugurated as the chairman of the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association.

Kwon became the first executive not come from Samsung Electronics to become chairman.

Kwon’s term will be until March of 2013. 

“Semiconductor demand has been sluggish on the back of a slower than expected recovery in the global economy, making it increasingly difficult to see investment in the memory chip industry,” Kwon said. “I feel a doubly big responsibility for having taken on the role as chairman in the face of such adversity and challenge.”

He also called on his colleagues in the chip industry and the association to continuously develop new and creative high-tech products based on the accumulated memory technology.

Kwon’s predecessor was Kwon Oh-hyun, chief executive of Samsung Electronics’ chip business who was on Friday named as head of a new unit at the electronics maker.

(jemmie@heraldcorp.com)