'Hermit manager' changed company
Lee Kun-hee, who resigned yesterday as chairman of the scandal-tainted Samsung group, lives a reclusive existence, but his occasional pronouncements on business reverberated throughout South Korea.
He seldom ventured out from the high walls of his home on the hills of central Seoul to visit group headquarters. His nickname was "the hermit manager", according to Chosun Ilbo daily.
But the 66-year-old tycoon created waves of change in the country's largest conglomerate. He sent ripples through business circles whenever he broke his long silences.
His prophetic leadership style was widely credited with turning Samsung Electronics, the group flagship, into one of the world's leading developers and producers of semiconductors, mobile phones and LCD displays.
"Let's change everything except our wives and kids," he famously said in 1993, prompting Samsung Electronics to shift away from low-end products to high-quality wares.
He studied at Japan's prestigious Waseda University and earned an MBA at George Washington University in the United States 1966.
He is married to Hong Ra-hee, one of the country's richest women, who yesterday resigned as president of the Leeum, the group's prestigious art gallery.
AFP
(China Daily 04/23/2008 page16)
