Samsung Electronics appointed Terry Halvorsen, a former US military information technology expert, as a global enterprise adviser to Shin Jong-kyun, the tech giant‘s CEO, the company said Friday.

Halvorsen built his career in the Department of Defense and Department of the Navy over more than 35 years and will focus on Samsung’s global business-to-business mobile business, particularly on security issues over quickly developing connected devices. He will serve as an executive vice president at Samsung, it said.

“All companies today face an incredible challenge of identifying ways to meet high demands by increasing productivity and speed through mobile technology while also ensuring company devices are not compromised and critical data does not become lost,” said Shin, head of Samsung‘s IT & Mobile Communications.

“Mr. Halvorsen’s vast experience and technical knowledge around cyber security in the global defense industry will complement our strategy to ensure we meet the complex needs of businesses, end users and partners by providing increased productivity without sacrificing security.”

Halvorsen spent two years as chief information officer for the DoD, also working as a principal adviser to the US secretary of defense for information management, technology and assurance as well as non-intelligence space systems.

He also served as a chief intelligence officer within the Department of the Navy and took on numerous other roles at Navy Cyber Forces and Naval Network Warfare Command.

By Cho Chung-un (christory@heraldcorp.com)