Lee Kun-hee

Lee Kun-hee was a South Korean businessman who chaired Samsung from 1987 to 2008 and again from 2010 until his death on 25 October 2020. Born on 9 January 1942 in Daegu during the Japanese occupation of Korea, he was the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul and studied economics at Waseda University in Tokyo and later at George Washington University. He joined the Tongyang Broadcasting Company in 1966, took over the chair of the conglomerate on 24 December 1987, two weeks after his father died, and in 1993 gathered his executives in Frankfurt to call for a change in the company approach to quality. Under him Samsung became the largest maker of smartphones, memory chips and televisions. He was convicted of bribery in 1996 and of financial wrongdoing and tax evasion in 2008, and was pardoned both times.