Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee Dies at 78

Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee, who remodeled the South Korean company into an international tech titan, died on the age of 78 on Sunday, the corporate mentioned.

Underneath Lee’s management, Samsung rose to turn into the area’s biggest manufacturer of smartphones and reminiscence chips, and the company’s general turnover as of late is identical to a 5th of South Korea’s GDP.

Samsung’s meteoric upward push helped make Lee South Korea’s richest and maximum robust industrialist.

“It’s with nice disappointment that we announce the passing of Kun-hee Lee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics,” the corporate mentioned in a remark.

“Chairman Lee kicked the bucket on October 25 together with his relations, together with Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee, by means of his facet.

“Chairman Lee used to be a real visionary who remodeled Samsung into the world-leading innovator and business powerhouse from a neighborhood industry,” the company mentioned, including: “His legacy will probably be permanent.”

Samsung is by means of some distance the largest of the family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebols, that dominate industry in South Korea.

They drove the country’s transformation from a war-ravaged break to the area’s 12th-largest economic system, however in this day and age are accused of murky political ties and stifling festival — with Lee himself two times convicted of legal offences, in a single case bribing a president.

World energy
When Lee inherited the chairmanship of the Samsung staff in 1987 — based by means of his father as a fish and fruit exporter — it used to be already the rustic’s biggest conglomerate, with operations starting from shopper electronics to development.

However it used to be observed as a shoddy manufacturer of inexpensive, low-quality merchandise.

“Let’s trade the whole thing except for our other halves and children,” Lee mentioned in 1993.

The corporate collected up and burnt all 150,000 cellphones it had in inventory, paving the way in which for the rebirth of the extremely a hit “Anycall” handset.

With Lee on the helm, Samsung changed into an international behemoth: by the point he suffered a middle assault in 2014, it used to be the area’s largest maker of smartphones and reminiscence chips, and a significant participant in semiconductors and LCDs.

Lee hardly spoke to the media, however used to be intently watched each time he broke his lengthy silences, ceaselessly with doom-laden New 12 months company addresses.

His son, Samsung Electronics vp Lee Jae-yong, has been on the helm of the corporate because the 2014 middle assault.

‘Hermit king’
Regardless of his immense wealth and gear, Lee seldom ventured out from the top partitions of his non-public compound in central Seoul to discuss with the corporate headquarters, incomes him the nickname “hermit king”.

Lee, the 3rd son of Samsung staff founder Lee Byung-chull, had a comfortable spot for canine — evolved as a kid in Japan the place he went to university from age 11. He used to be additionally identified for his love of flicks, horseriding and unique supercars.

He studied at Japan’s prestigious Waseda College and earned an MBA at George Washington College in the US.

He changed into vp of the crowd’s development and buying and selling arm on the age of 36, and changed into staff chairman 9 years later, in a while after his father’s demise.

Lee married Hong Ra-hee — whose father used to be a justice minister — with whom he had a son and 3 daughters.

Bribes, embezzlement, tax evasion
The worlds of politics and industry had been intertwined in South Korea, and the relationship used to be mirrored in Lee’s occupation.

In 1996, he used to be convicted of bribing former president Roh Tae-woo to get favours for Samsung in industry coverage selections.

Lee used to be additionally discovered accountable of embezzlement and tax evasion in a slush fund scandal in 2008, which noticed him in brief step down from the corporate management.

However suspended sentences intended he by no means served time in prison and he won two presidential pardons, happening to spearhead his nation’s a hit efforts to protected the 2018 Iciness Olympics.

A couple of years later, he fought off a lawsuit from his older brother and sister claiming they had been entitled to Samsung stocks value billions of greenbacks.

He have been in hospital therapy after his middle assault, however few main points had been ever published about his situation, leaving him shrouded in thriller even in his ultimate days.