Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, right, attends a memorial ceremony marking the sixth anniversary of the death of his father, former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, at the family burial site in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Oct. 23.NEWS1
Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong visited the grave of his late father, former Samsung Chairman Lee Kun-hee, alongside the conglomerate's top executives to mark the sixth anniversary of his death.
Samsung held a memorial ceremony Friday morning at the family's burial site in Suwon, Gyeonggi, according to industry sources.
Lee Jae-yong, who returned to Korea earlier in the day from a business trip to the United Arab Emirates, arrived at the site at 8:40 a.m. He bowed twice before his father's grave and poured liquor around the burial mound as part of a traditional Korean memorial ritual.
Family members in attendance included Hong Ra-hee, former director of the Leeum Museum of Art; Lee Boo-jin, CEO of Hotel Shilla; and Lee Seo-hyun, President of Samsung C&T. Senior executives were also present, including Jun Young-hyun, vice chairman and head of Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division, and Roh Tae-moon, president and head of the Device eXperience (DX) division.
The ceremony was held quietly, without a separate formal event, and centered on laying flowers and paying respects at the grave.
Afterward, Lee Jae-yong and Samsung executives traveled to the Samsung Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi, for lunch. The facility, which serves as a training center for new employees and houses a bust of the late chairman, has traditionally hosted an annual gathering where Lee Jae-yong and senior executives reflect on his father's management philosophy following the memorial ceremony.
During a similar luncheon in 2022, when he was still vice chairman, Lee Jae-yong urged executives to take a more ambitious approach to challenges.
"Now is the time to be bolder and take on greater challenges," Lee Jae-yong said at the time. "The more difficult the circumstances, the more we must prepare ahead and strengthen our capabilities."
Late former Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-heeJOONGANG ILBO
Lee Kun-hee entered the semiconductor industry in 1974 by investing his personal wealth in Hankook Semiconductor. In 1987, he adopted the stacking method, which vertically layers circuits in dynamic random-access memory chips. In 1993, when competitors largely relied on 6-inch wafers, he made a bold investment in production lines using 8-inch wafers.
The foundations laid half a century ago are now contributing to record breaking results in the era of AI.
Samsung Electronics held a 39.4 percent share of the global DRAM market by revenue in the second quarter of this year, making it the world's largest supplier, according to market research firm TrendForce.
Amid a semiconductor supercycle, the company also reported preliminary operating profit of 107.4 trillion won ($81 billion) in the third quarter, which made it the first Korean company to surpass 100 trillion won in quarterly operating profit.
Lee Kun-hee's legacy in arts and culture has also drawn renewed attention.
The Lee Kun-hee Collection, comprising some 23,000 cultural artifacts and artworks donated by his family, has attracted more than 3.5 million visitors across exhibitions in Korea. An international touring exhibition featuring works from the collection opened at the British Museum in London on Oct. 1.
Samsung will conclude its commemorative events for the sixth anniversary of Lee Kun-hee's death with a memorial concert at the Samsung Electronics Human Resources Development Center in Yongin on Wednesday.BY KIM SU-MIN [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
