Lee Jae-yong Visits Ho-Am Prize Ceremony for 2nd Year...Reaffirms Commitment to 'Talent Development' (Comprehensive)

Silent on Reasons for Named Donations to Hoam Foundation
Only Owner Family Member Attended
All Subsidiary Presidents Except Han Jong-hee Show Up

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong once again showed his special affection for the Samsung Ho-Am Prize. For the second consecutive year, following last year, he participated in the Ho-Am Prize award ceremony, demonstrating his particular care for the Ho-Am Foundation as a channel for nurturing talent and expanding support for national basic science. The Ho-Am Foundation is also the place where Chairman Lee, who usually prefers anonymous donations, made an unusual named donation for two consecutive years.

The '33rd Samsung Ho-Am Prize Award Ceremony for 2023' was held at 4 p.m. on the 1st at the Dynasty Hall of the Shilla Hotel in Seoul. Chairman Lee appeared around 3:40 p.m., 20 minutes before the event started. Despite reporters' questions directed at him, such as "How do you feel attending the Ho-Am Prize for the first time since becoming chairman?" and "What is the reason for your named donation to the Ho-Am Foundation?", he entered the venue without giving any particular answers.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is attending the 2023 Samsung Ho-Am Prize Awards Ceremony held at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on the afternoon of the 1st.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Most of Samsung's presidents attended the event that day. Except for executives on overseas business trips, including Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee, about 50 presidents, including Samsung Electronics Chairman Kim Ki-nam, Samsung Electronics President Kyung Kye-hyun, and Samsung Electronics President Noh Tae-moon, all gathered. President Kyung Kye-hyun smiled in response to reporters' questions about the semiconductor market outlook for the second half of the year as he entered.

Hong Ra-hee, former director of the Leeum Museum of Art and known as a fan of this year's award-winning pianist Cho Seong-jin, did not attend. It appears that pianist Cho Seong-jin was absent due to an overseas performance schedule. Lee Boo-jin, President of Hotel Shilla, and Lee Seo-hyun, Chairwoman of the Samsung Welfare Foundation, also did not attend.

The Ho-Am Prize has attracted attention every year as the Samsung Group owner family directly attends the award ceremony. Chairman Lee Jae-yong, who was unable to attend the ceremony for a while after the judicial risks in 2016, resumed attending the ceremony starting last year. Until 2013, he attended together with the late Samsung former Chairman Lee Kun-hee.

Chairman Lee's visit to the Ho-Am Prize award ceremony this year, following last year, is interpreted as a will to inherit the predecessor's philosophy of 'business for the nation and prioritizing talent.' As Samsung's 'new leader,' Chairman Lee's philosophy of 'future companionship,' which emphasizes "sharing together and growing together as the path to becoming the world's best," is being expanded into the fields of academia, arts, and science.

Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong is attending the 2023 Samsung Ho-Am Prize Awards Ceremony held at the Shilla Hotel in Seoul on the afternoon of the 1st.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

Since 2021, Chairman Lee has proposed expanding support for the national basic science field and has also expanded awards in the science field. It is known that he proposed expanding the awards with the intention of increasing support for the basic science field, which is relatively weaker compared to engineering or medicine, to strengthen the foundation of the industrial ecosystem and contribute to enhancing national competitiveness.

Known for preferring anonymous donations, Chairman Lee Jae-yong unusually showed his affection for the Ho-Am Prize by donating 200 million KRW in his real name to the Ho-Am Foundation for two consecutive years.

In addition to the Samsung Ho-Am Prize, Samsung supports the development of basic science through future technology fostering projects and industry-academia cooperation. To date, it has supported research funding of about 1 trillion KRW for more than 760 projects, and many papers related to Samsung-supported research projects have been published in international academic journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell. Samsung invests more than 100 billion KRW annually in industry-academia cooperation for future technology and talent development at domestic universities and operates contract departments with domestic universities, contributing to strengthening national R&D capabilities.

Meanwhile, this year's awardees are ▲ Science Prize in Physics and Mathematics: Lim Ji-soon (72), Distinguished Professor at POSTECH ▲ Science Prize in Chemistry and Life Sciences: Choi Kyung-shin (54), Professor at University of Wisconsin, USA ▲ Engineering Prize: Seon Yang-guk (62), Distinguished Professor at Hanyang University ▲ Medical Prize: Marsha Haygis (49), Professor at Harvard Medical School, USA ▲ Arts Prize: Cho Seong-jin (29), Pianist ▲ Social Service Prize: Global Care Corporation, among others. Each awardee received a certificate, medal, and prize money of 300 million KRW, totaling 1.8 billion KRW.

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