TDT|Seoul

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The mastermind behind the rise of Samsung Electronics, from an ordinary television maker, into a global giant of consumer electronics, has died. He was 78.

The Samsung Electronics chairman who was ailing after a heart attack had been hospitalized since May 2014.

Lee Kun-hee inherited the company’s control from his father and under his leadership, the company delved into various business segments such as shipbuilding, life insurance, construction, hotels, amusement park operation, and more. Samsung Electronics alone accounts for 20 percent of the market capital on South Korea’s main stock market.

However, his death came at a time when the company is facing severe competition from the iPhone maker apple and upstart makers from China and other emerging markets.

Lee was born 9 January 1942, in the southeastern city of Daegu during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. His father Lee Byung-chull had founded an export business there in 1938 and following the 1950-53 Korean War, he rebuilt the company into an electronics and home appliance manufacturer and the country’s first major trading company. Lee Byung-chull was often called one of the fathers of modern industrial South Korea.

In 2007, a former company lawyer accused Samsung of wrongdoing in a book that became a best seller in South Korea. Lee Kun-Hee was subsequently indicted on tax evasion and other charges.

Lee resigned as chairman of Samsung Electronics and was convicted and sentenced to a suspended three-year prison term. He received a presidential pardon in 2009 and returned to Samsung’s management in 2010.