Lee Kun-Hee – South Korean Businessman

As the chairman of Samsung Group, Lee Kun-Hee worked with everything from IT services, textiles, consumer electronics, leisure businesses, insurance, engineering to construction. However, in 2014, he had a major heart attack at home and ever since many people are wondering about his condition.

Right now, his son Jay Y. Lee, the vice chairman of crown jewel Samsung Electronics, has been in charge of the operation of the Samsung Group. Meanwhile, the family has done some rearranging and shuffling to take control of the key holdings while Kun-Hee is unavailable. It has been a tough challenge, if the chairman passes the inheritance taxes could be quite large - $5 to $6 billion – and the government involvement in family-run businesses means total transparency.

Lee is on the top of the list of Korea’s 50 Richest people and listed as number 14 on the list of the Richest people in Technology by Forbes in 2016. He is also the richest billionaire in South Korea and ranked 112 in the world of billionaires by Forbes.

The surname Lee is the Korean form of Li, which is taken from the Sino-Korean character 李 that means “plum” or “plum tree”. The name is also a variant of the Chinese romanization of the word Li, which was the surname of many Chinese emperors during the Tang dynasty.

The given name Kun is taken from a Chinese character that means “female” or “earth”. While the name element Hee is a variant of the Chinese name Hui that means “beauty”, “play”, or “enjoy”.