Lee Kun-hee | |
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Lee attending breakfast with various Korean business leaders in 2013
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Born |
Ŭiryŏng, South Kyŏngsang, South Korea |
January 9, 1942
Nationality | South Korean |
Alma mater |
Waseda University George Washington University |
Occupation | Chairman of Samsung |
Net worth | US$14.8 billion (May 2016) |
Spouse(s) | Hong Ra-hee |
Children |
Lee Jae-yong Lee Boo-jin Lee Seo-hyun Lee Yoon-hyung† |
Parent(s) |
Lee Byung-chul Park Du-eul |
Korean name | |
Hangul | 이건희 |
Hanja | 李健熙 |
Revised Romanization | I Geonhui |
McCune–Reischauer | Yi Kŏnhŭi |
Lee Kun-hee (Hangul: 이건희; Hanja: 李健熙; Korean pronunciation: [iːɡʌnhi]; born January 9, 1942) is a South Korean business magnate and the chairman of Samsung Group. He resigned in April 2008, owing to a Samsung slush funds scandal, but returned on March 24, 2010. In 1996, Lee became a member of the International Olympic Committee. With an estimated net worth of $12.6 billion, he and his family rank among the Forbes richest people in the world. He is the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul.
In 2014, Lee was named the world's 35th most powerful person and the most powerful Korean by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People along with his son Lee Jae-yong. In May 2014, he was hospitalized for a heart attack.
Lee Kun-hee was born on 9 January 1942 in Uiryeong, South Gyeongsang, South Korea. He is the third son of Lee Byung-chul, the founder of the Samsung group.
Lee joined the Samsung Group in 1968 and took over the chairmanship on December 1, 1987, just two weeks after the death of his father, Lee Byung-chul, who founded Samsung. In the early 1990s, believing that Samsung Group was overly focused on producing massive quantities of low-quality goods and that it was not prepared to compete in quality, Lee famously said in 1993 "Change everything except your wife and kids" and true to his word attempted to reform the profoundly Korean culture that had pervaded Samsung until this point. Foreign employees were brought in and local employees were shipped out as Lee tried to foster a more international attitude to doing business.