Samsung Electronic chairman Lee Kun-hee is dead

The chairman of South Korean telecommunications giant Lee Kun-hee in 2012 in Las Vegas.

REUTERS / Steve Marcus

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Samsung president Lee Kun-hee passed away this Sunday, October 25 at the age of 78.

The wealthiest man in South Korea turned the conglomerate into an electronics empire. 

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With our correspondent in Seoul,

When

inherited Samsung in the late 1980s, his father, the founder of the group, bequeathed him a low-end TV and microwave business.

More than thirty years later, he has multiplied the group's assets by 50 and established it as a global electronics giant.

Shortly after arriving at the head of Samsung, Lea Kun-hee wanted to fundamentally change the group's mentality: “

 ” he told the staff of the conglomerate in 1993.

Scandals

Although he has left the management of the company to his only son Lee Jae-Yong since his heart attack six years ago, the conglomerate has diversified and developed dozens of subsidiaries under his control: heavy industry, hotels, insurance, construction and amusement parks.

The company alone accounts for one fifth of South Korea's GDP.

The businessman known to be authoritarian had a mixed image in the public opinion, in particular because of the scandals of tax evasion and non-respect of the labor law in some factories.

His succession was already organized with his son at the head of Samsung Electronics and his two daughters, presidents of the hotel and building branch of the group.

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