Samsung Appoints New U.S. Smart Home Leader

Samsung has named Mark Benson to lead the U.S. operations of its internet of things (IoT) and smart home unit, a newly created role.

Benson’s official title is Head of SmartThings U.S., which places him in charge of overseeing the unit’s growth and development strategy as it pushes for mass smart home adoption. Before this, he was the Head of Product and Engineering for SmartThings and helped expand the usability of Samsung’s connected TVs, refrigerators and smart monitors.

Among his biggest accomplishments for the company was the debut of SmartThings Edge, which allows Samsung devices to communicate and run locally, even if there isn’t an internet connection. He also helped integrate the Matter smart home interoperability standard so customers can use Samsung’s products in third-party ecosystems—meaning Samsung devices can seamlessly slot into homes that already run on Alexa or Google Assistant and third-party devices can operate in a SmartThings powered home.

In a press release, Samsung’s Corporate EVP and Head of Products and Experience Patrick Chomet stated, "The smart home market is now a multi-billion dollar industry, and we're confident that Mark's extensive leadership experience will continue to drive our mission of bringing SmartThings into every household across the world."

Samsung’s dreams of striking it big in the U.S. smart home market will fall squarely on Benson’s shoulders. Benson’s work to further open up Samsung’s connected device ecosystem will be advantageous for the company as many Americans have already bought into Amazon, Google or Apple’s smart home systems through smart speakers—a device Samsung still hasn’t released.

The lack of a Samsung smart speaker is important as the devices and their accompanying voice assistants are among the top ways that consumers interact with other smart home technologies. Without their own speakers and popular voice assistant, Samsung’s strategy to maintain an open ecosystem will likely be the only way its smart home products experience mass adoption among U.S. consumers.