Late Chairman Lee Geon-hee's Special Love for His Pet Dog... 30th Anniversary of the 'Guide Dog Project'

30th Anniversary of Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School Established in 1993
Chairman Lee Geon-hee's Love for Companion Dogs as a Social Contribution Project
"Guide Dogs Are the Benchmark of the Nation's Disability Welfare Level"

The Samsung guide dog project, initiated by the late Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, marked its 30th anniversary this year. Chairman Lee, a dog lover, foresaw the guide dog project as a model for returning corporate profits to society and established the guide dog school in September 1993.

Chairman Lee had a special affection for companion dogs. A famous story tells of his Pomeranian 'Benji,' to whom he was particularly attached in the 1990s. When Benji died, he brought another dog of the same breed and gave it the same name. After the second Benji passed away, he even collected Benji’s somatic cells to create a cloned dog.

From the fifth position on the left in the second row, Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Hong Ra-hee are taking a commemorative photo with attendees and guide dogs at the 30th anniversary ceremony of the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School. / Photo by Kim Pyeonghwa

He also worked hard to have the Jindo dog, Korea’s representative native breed, recognized worldwide. In the 1960s, Jindo dogs could not be registered with the World Canine Organization because their purebred status could not be verified. In response, Chairman Lee traveled to Jindo in 1969, purchased 30 Jindo dogs, and conducted breeding work with researchers for 10 years. In 1979, he registered a purebred pair with the organization.

During this process, he served as president of the Jindo Dog Lovers Association in 1975. He raised hundreds of dogs, including companion dogs and Jindos, at his home in Hannam-dong. When complaints from neighbors surged, he relocated the dogs to Everland. Everland then worked to promote the Jindo dog internationally. As a result, in 2005, the Jindo was listed in the prestigious 'UK Kennel Club' registry, known for its strict standards.

The late Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics, with a retriever /
[Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics]

Chairman Lee’s exceptional love for dogs reached a new milestone in 1993. In September of that year, Samsung established the 'Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School,' an institution for training guide dogs for the visually impaired. This came shortly after Chairman Lee’s New Management Declaration in June 1993, when he urgently gathered executives at the Kempinski Hotel near Frankfurt, Germany, demanding radical innovation with the phrase, "Change everything except my wife and children."

At the time, Chairman Lee believed that for Samsung to leap forward as a global company, it needed to move away from quantitative expansion typical of developing countries and pursue qualitative growth. He also set the goal of becoming a top-tier company contributing to human society. In this process, Samsung introduced the world’s only guide dog school operated by a corporation.

He said, "The reason Samsung raises dogs to improve welfare for the disabled or to change people’s minds is so that these efforts spread throughout society, raising the public’s awareness to a higher level." Although some viewed Samsung’s move negatively at the time, he firmly believed that "the guide dog project would undoubtedly contribute to raising the welfare mindset of our society."

Samsung has since worked to realize Chairman Lee’s philosophy. Since the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School first placed a guide dog named 'Bada' in 1994, it has trained 12 to 15 guide dogs annually, sending a total of 280 dogs into society. The trainers and prospective guide dogs have walked approximately 810,000 km over 30 years, surpassing the round-trip distance from Earth to the Moon (about 760,000 km). The guide dog school has also worked to improve social perceptions of the disabled and guide dogs through visual impairment experience events.

A prospective guide dog in training at Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School /
[Photo by Samsung Electronics]

Cooperation continued with related organizations such as the government, National Assembly, and local governments, as well as with visually impaired individuals and numerous volunteers. Legislation was enacted to penalize blocking disabled people accompanied by guide dogs from using public transportation or entering public places. Over 2,000 households have volunteered to assist in the training and retirement processes of guide dogs.

Bae Jin-gyo, floor leader of the Justice Party, said, "Guide dogs are a reflection of a country’s level of welfare for the disabled," and praised Samsung’s free guide dog support project for the visually impaired as "a pioneering step that changed the domestic reality where awareness of guide dogs was nonexistent, setting a model for corporate social responsibility."

The Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School recently doubled the size of its kennels and renovated the interior to create a comfortable space. It has increased the number of educational workshops for the visually impaired who use guide dogs and expanded the proportion of auditory educational materials, improving both the quantity and quality of education.

At the 30th anniversary ceremony held on the 19th, Park Tae-jin, principal of the Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance Guide Dog School, said, "Chairman Lee’s insight and conviction, along with everyone’s love and dedication, made the Samsung guide dog project possible," adding, "We will continue to do our best for this beautiful journey."

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