Lee Kun-hee

Lee Kun-hee
이건희
Lee in 2013
Born	(1942-01-09)9 January 1942 Taikyu, Keishōhoku Prefecture, Korea, Empire of Japan
Died	25 October 2020(2020-10-25) (aged 78) Seoul, South Korea
Education	Waseda University (BS) George Washington University
Occupation	Business executive
Years active	1966–2020
Title	Chairman of Samsung Group
Spouse	Hong Ra-hee
Children	Lee Jae-yong Lee Boo-jin Lee Seo-hyun Lee Yoon-hyung
Parents	Lee Byung-chul (father) Park Du-eul [ko] (mother)
Relatives	Lee Myung-hee (sister)
Korean name
Hangul	이건희
Hanja	李健熙
Revised Romanization	I Geonhui
McCune–Reischauer	I Kŏnhŭi
IPA	iːɡʌnɣi

Lee Kun-hee (Korean: 이건희; 9 January 1942 – 25 October 2020) was a South Korean business executive who served as the chairman of Samsung Group from 1987 to 2008 and from 2010 to his death in 2020. He is also credited with the transformation of Samsung to one of the world's largest business entities that engages in semiconductors, smartphones, electronics, shipbuilding, construction, and other businesses. Since Lee became the chairman of Samsung, the company became the world's largest manufacturer of smartphones, memory chips, and appliances. He was the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul. With an estimated net worth of US$21 billion at the time of his death,^[1] he was the richest person in South Korea, a position that he had held since 2007.

He was convicted twice, once in 1996 and subsequently in 2008, for corruption and tax evasion charges, but was pardoned on both instances. In 2014, Lee was named the world's 35th most powerful person and the most powerful Korean by Forbes's list of the world's most powerful people along with his son, Lee Jae-yong.^[2]