Lee Seonho Heads to the U.S.: Fourth-Generation CJ Owner Steps Fully into Management

Frequent Appearances at CES, Olive Young, and Open Innovation Events
Increased Public Engagement Since Taking Charge of the Future Planning Group
Set to Review Global Business Status During U.S. Business Trip

Lee Seonho, the fourth-generation owner of CJ Group and Head of the Future Planning Group, is expanding his management activities. Since the beginning of this year, he has been repeatedly appearing at public events that symbolize future business and global strategies, thereby strengthening his presence within the group.

According to industry sources on May 15, Lee is scheduled to accompany Chairman Lee Jay-Hyun on his business trip to the United States this month. Chairman Lee plans to visit the PGA Tour’s 'The CJ Cup Byron Nelson' in Texas on May 20, after which he will visit CJ Olive Young’s first offline store in the U.S., the Pasadena branch. The industry expects that during this trip, Lee will join Chairman Lee in reviewing CJ’s 'K-Lifestyle' strategy—which integrates K-Food, K-Beauty, and K-Content—as well as assessing the status of the group's North American business.

During the break at last month's meetup, Group Leader Lee Sunho (second from left) and members of the O/I consortium are taking a photo together. Provided by CJ Group.

Until last year, Lee was known as a 'quiet, hands-on leader.' Despite his symbolic status as the 'fourth-generation owner,' he kept a low profile and focused on gaining business experience on the ground. While at CJ CheilJedang, he led initiatives such as expanding North American operations, global branding of Bibigo, and the Korean chef development project 'Cuisine K,' but rarely appeared in public. However, the atmosphere has changed this year.

His first official activity was attending CES 2026, the world’s largest IT and electronics exhibition, held in Las Vegas this January. This was Lee’s first visit to CES. Locally, he directly explored trends in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation (DT) technologies and discussed collaboration opportunities with global corporate partners.

That same month, he participated in the '2026 Cuisine K Dots Day' event held at 'Cave House,' a multi-purpose cultural space in Itaewon, Seoul. 'Dots Day' is an annual event supporting the growth and networking of young chefs. 'Cuisine K' is a Korean culinary talent discovery and development project operated by CJ CheilJedang, and Lee has personally overseen this initiative since 2023. His direct participation in this event, which symbolizes K-Food and the globalization of Korean cuisine, was seen as a clear demonstration of his presence.

In March, Lee visited the 'Central Myeongdong Town' of CJ Olive Young in Myeong-dong, Seoul, together with Chairman Lee Jay-Hyun. They inspected this key store, which attracts large numbers of foreign tourists and global customers, to review the status of K-Beauty and global distribution operations. This highlighted Lee’s direct involvement in the overseas expansion strategies of CJ Olive Young, a core growth engine for the group.

The event that most attracted industry attention was last month’s 'Affiliates Open Innovation (OI) Council Meetup.' Led by the Group’s Future Planning Office, this event brought together the startup investment and development teams from affiliates such as CJ CheilJedang, CJ OnStyle, and CJ Investment for the first time. Lee personally led the entire event, presenting the group-wide startup collaboration strategy and new business directions.

At the event, he stated, "Until now, each affiliate has been operating independently, but now it’s time for us to connect with each other," and emphasized, "This should not be a one-off event, but rather a stepping stone to create new business opportunities." CJ Group plans to further build a platform for sharing investment information among affiliates and enhance its startup collaboration systems in the future.

The business community sees these changes as a signal of something beyond just 'management training.' Whereas in the past Lee was in a phase of proving his success in global business, he is now rising to a position where he defines the group’s overall future strategies and direction.

This transformation is also linked to organizational restructuring. After returning to the holding company in September last year, Lee was appointed Head of the Future Planning Office, and in November of the same year, he was promoted to lead the Future Planning Group, which merged the Future Planning Office and the DT Promotion Office. The Future Planning Group is responsible for discovering new growth engines and establishing investment strategies at the group level.

The organization has expanded further this year. In addition to the existing three divisions—corporate venture, strategy, and HR planning—brand strategy and industry trends divisions have been added, restructuring the group into five divisions. Some parts of the existing organization have been incorporated into the Future Planning Group, strengthening the group’s future strategy functions. Internally at CJ, the assignment of a large number of young talents is also seen as a key characteristic. Compared to traditional manufacturing-centered strategy organizations, there is now a stronger focus on rapid trend response and flexible thinking.

Born in 1990, Lee joined CJ CheilJedang in 2013 through open recruitment and has worked in both bio and global strategy sectors. Notably, after the acquisition of U.S. frozen food company Schwan’s Company in 2019, he participated in PMI (Post-Merger Integration), gaining hands-on experience in North American operations. He also helped establish a partnership between Bibigo and the NBA team LA Lakers, boosting K-Food brand recognition in the North American market.

After being appointed Head of Food Growth Promotion in 2022, he was involved in developing a global strategy centered on North America. As a result, the overseas sales ratio of CJ CheilJedang increased from 47% in 2022 to 51% last year.

Beyond management, since 2023, Lee has personally overseen the Cuisine K project, striving to broaden the base of K-Food. Recently, he has also been focusing on global branding initiatives that combine Korean cuisine with traditional liquors. Last year, he led the traditional liquor globalization project and the premium distilled liquor brand 'Jari'. An industry insider commented, "In the past, Lee was in the stage of proving his success in global business, but now he has moved up to a position where he designs the group’s overall future strategies," and added, "His role in CJ’s new business and global expansion strategies will only grow larger."

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