The 35th Memorial Ceremony for Hoam Lee Byung-chul, Founding Chairman of Samsung, Held

CJ, Samsung, and Other Samsung Family Members Hold Memorial Service at Ancestral Gravesite in Yongin

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] The 35th memorial service for Ho-Am Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung Group, will be held on the morning of the 18th at his ancestral burial ground in Yongin. The memorial service will be attended by Lee Jae-yong, chairman of Samsung Electronics and grandson of the founder, along with members of the extended Samsung family including CJ, Shinsegae, and Hansol, at the ancestral site near the Ho-Am Art Museum in Yongin.

According to business circles, the 35th memorial service for founder Lee Byung-chul is being held a day earlier on the morning of the 18th because the actual anniversary falls on Saturday (the 19th). The extended Samsung family groups including Samsung, CJ, Shinsegae, and Hansol are expected to visit the Yongin ancestral burial ground at different times. In the past, the Ho-Am memorial service was held jointly, but since 2012, when the brothers CJ’s former chairman Lee Maeng-hee and Samsung’s former chairman Lee Kun-hee were involved in an inheritance dispute, the memorial services have been held separately on the same day at different times.

Chairman Lee was unable to attend last year’s 34th memorial service due to a business trip to the United States, but he is expected to attend this year. This will be his first attendance at the founder’s memorial service since becoming chairman. Previously, Samsung clarified the titles for founder Lee Byung-chul and former chairman Lee Kun-hee. Before Chairman Lee’s promotion, they were referred to as former chairman Lee Byung-chul and chairman Lee Kun-hee, but after his promotion, the titles were reorganized to reduce confusion.

Separately from the memorial service, the ancestral rites will be conducted by Lee Jae-hyun, the eldest grandson and chairman of CJ Group.

Founder Ho-Am Lee Byung-chul was born in 1910 in Uiryeong, Gyeongsangnam-do, and established "Samsung Sanghoe" on March 1, 1938. He started his business by exporting fruits and dried seafood to China and Manchuria. Later, he judged that trade was urgently needed for Korea’s economic development, which lacked capital, technology, and sufficient power supply, and established Samsung Corporation in 1948 to actively engage in trading.

In 1953, he founded Cheil Jedang and started the sugar business, and subsequently established companies such as Cheil Industries (1954), Samsung Electronics (1969), and Samsung Heavy Industries (1974), greatly contributing to the national economic development.

Representative management philosophies of founder Lee include "Business for the Nation," "Talent First," and "Pursuit of Rationality." "Business for the Nation" means contributing and serving the country, society, and ultimately humanity through business. "Talent First" refers to respecting human beings and creating conditions where individuals can maximize their abilities, becoming a driving force for personal and social development. Founder Lee emphasized that no matter how excellent the meanings of Business for the Nation and Talent First are, if they are not based on rationality, their essence can be damaged. Therefore, he stressed that all management activities must be reasonable and pursue rationality.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.