It’s also one of South Korea’s biggest family-controlled conglomerates, or chaebol, which has seen its fair share of controversy over the years. The death of Lee Kun-hee, the chairman of Samsung Electronics, was a huge news topic in 2020, and now all eyes are on his heirs. But just how much do you know about them?
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Lee Jae-yong
Lee Jae-yong, or Jay Y. Lee, is the only son of Lee Kun-hee and vice-chairman of Samsung Electronics. He started working for Samsung in 1991, immediately taking on a management position. In 1997, he married fellow heir Lim Se-ryung of the chaebol Daesang Group, but they eventually got divorced in 2009.
The 52-year-old and his family ranked 176 out of 500 on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at the time of writing, with an estimated net worth of US$12.3 billion.
However, back in February 2017, he was first arrested over his alleged role in a political and corporate scandal linked to South Korea’s then-president, Park Geun-hye. In January he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Charges against him include bribery, embezzlement, hiding assets overseas and perjury – all of which he denied.
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Lee Boo-jin
Lee Boo-jin is the eldest daughter of Lee Kun-hee and the CEO of Hotel Shilla, which is a subsidiary of Samsung. The 50-year-old mother of one appeared in Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women of Asia-Pacific” list in 2015, Forbes’ “Korea’s 50 Richest” list in 2020 and its “Billionaires” list in 2021.
Although she’s also been embroiled in controversy – a drug scandal in 2019, for instance – she’s also known as a warm-hearted helping hand. A particularly popular story is how she offered up Shilla Stay’s rooms to victims of the massive fire in Ulsan in October, as reported by JoongAng Ilbo.
According to Yonhap, in 2019 Hotel Shilla recorded 5.72 trillion won (US$5 billion) in annual revenue, up 21.3 per cent from the previous year, and operating profits of 295.9 billion won (US$262 million), up 41.5 per cent. And while the pandemic hit the tourism and hospitality industries hard, Hotel Shilla has survived. Inside Mukesh Ambani’s US$79 million James Bond mansion
Lee Seo-hyun
Lee Kun-hee’s second daughter and youngest child, Lee Seo-hyun might be the Samsung heir with the most artistic talent. She attended Seoul’s Yewon School as a middle schooler, which is well-known for music, dance and visual art, and obtained her bachelor’s degree from the Parsons School of Design in New York.
She first entered Samsung Group as a manager at Cheil Industries, a textile firm established in 1954. In the 1980s, the company expanded its business into fashion, chemicals and electronic chemical materials. She currently oversees the Samsung Welfare Foundation charitable organisation.
Seo-hyun’s has an estimated net worth of US$1.1 billion, and she became the first Korean advisory board member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2010.
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Kim Jae-yeol
Kim Jae-yeol, the husband of Lee Seo-hyun, is the president of Samsung Economic Research Institute.
He also has quite the interest in sports. He was the president of the Korean Skating Union for a number of years and an executive vice-president of the Pyeongchang Organising Committee for the 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG). He was even awarded the Olympic Order in silver, which recognises important contributions to the event, in the same year.
Another chaebol, he is the great-grandson of Kim Seong-su, the founder of South Korea’s top university, Korea University, and Dong-a Ilbo.
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