Samsung Mobile has just lost a key executive, as its CTO Omar Khan will be leaving the company starting next week. Khan is widely considered to be responsible for Samsung making a huge push into Android and he was also kind of the public face for the original Galaxy Tab tablet.
Khan is going over to CitiBank to help the financial institution boost its mobile team. I don’t really blame Khan for leaving, as CitiBank is likely offering him a ton of cash and the digital payment space is the most exciting one to be in today with a lot of buzz around things like Google Wallet. These are only going to succeed in the United States with the backing of major financial institutions like CitiBank.
I think this is a blow for Samsung Mobile but it’s nothing that it can’t overcome. Khan was a really good CTO but he left for a better opportunity, not because Samsung is a bad place to be.
