Samsung Chair Dies at 78

By Kaiden Tran, Features Editor

SCHALK VAN ZUYDAM/AP Photos

Lee Kun-Hee, the Samsung Group’s chairman, has passed on Oct. 25, 2020 at the age of 78. Kun-Hee’s accomplishments can be summarized by his transformation of a small trading company to an international tech giant. A “Chaebol,” is a term to describe a family-run company in Korea. Kun-Hee has developed Samsung into the largest conglomerate and chaebol in the country.

Kun-Hee suffered a heart attack in 2014 which caused him to pass on his work to his son, Lee Jae-Yong. Jae-Yong has since run the company in his father’s place. Many questions lie on whether Jae-Yong will now take his father’s position as chairman of the company like Kun-Hee did from his father.

Kun-Hee was widely known for expanding upon his father’s company into an economic giant. Samsung markets nearly everything from electronics, engineering, life insurance, resorts, theme parks, and medicine as well.

"[Lee Kun-Hee] led the economic growth of South Korea by turning the semiconductor business into the country's main industry," South Korean President Moon Jae-in said.

The company Lee built is now one of the largest companies worldwide due to their high-end phones that rival Apple’s iPhone. There has been a constant battle between which is the “better” smartphone. Each phone has their own pros and cons and different qualities that appeal to different demographics.

“There are good things I see on Samsung phones that I wish were in my iPhone,” engineering entrepreneur and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak said, “I wish Apple would use them and could use them, and I don’t know if Samsung would stop us.”

Samsung has reached its household-title status because of Lee’s brilliant running of the company and confirming all of its products are in perfect condition to be sold.

“If you watched companies such as Sony and Samsung grow, they focused first on features and then on industrial design,” computer scientist Jefferson Han said. “Which made their products look and feel better.”

The loss of Lee Kun-Hee is quite grim however, the legacy he has brought can be shown through the economic success of Samsung and it’s products. It is currently unknown who will succeed Kun-Hee’s as Chairman of Samsung.