On 25th October 2020, the chairman of Samsung, Lee Kun-hee died at the age of 78 after years of been hospitalised. Kun-hee had served as chairman of the tech dynasty despite years of failing health.
He had taken over control of Samsung from his father, Lee Byung-chul. Byung-chul had also run the company until he died at the age of 77 in 1987. Under Lee Kun-hee, Samsung Group has come a long way from being just an ‘electronics’ company.
Lee Kun-hee supervised the separation of the company into four businesses after his father passed. They were; Samsung Group, Shinsegae Group, CJ Group, Hansol Group and the JoongAng Group. Also, Samsung became an international corporation in the 1990s under Kun-hee.
He is highly regarded both within his home country, South Korea, and the rest of the world. Forbes had listed Lee Kun-hee as the most powerful Korean in the world by 2014 and the 35th most powerful person in the world.
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However, he too faced some scandals during his time as chairman of Samsung Group. In fact, he had resigned in 2008 over slush fund accusations used to bribe prosecutors, judges and politicians in South Korea. But, he had returned to head the company again in 2010. Also, his siblings, an older brother and younger sister, had sued him in 2012 over the company’s shares.
Lee Kun-hee had survived lung cancer in the late 1990s and another cancer in 2005. Since 2014, Forbes says he has been hospitalised after suffering a heart attack. In fact, some other sources claim that he has been in a coma since then.
At the time of his death, Lee Kun-hee is said to be worth over $20.9 billion. While there is no official confirmation yet, Lee Kun-hee’s eldest child and only son, Lee Jae-yong, is likely to take over from him. Jae-yong already has a trail of legal issues including an arrest and conviction in 2017, but this might not block his ‘birthright’ as the heir to the Samsung throne.
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