LEE Kun-hee (1942- )

LEE Kun-hee (1942- )

Lee Kun-hee (born January 9, 1942) is Chairman of Samsung Electronics. He resigned on April 21, 2008 owing to Samsung Slush funds scandal, but returned on March 24, 2010. Lee has a degree in economics from Waseda University in Tokyo and attended an MBA course at George Washington University in the United States in 1966 without earning a degree. He speaks Korean, English, and Japanese. In 1996, Lee became a member of the International Olympic Committee. With an estimated net worth of $7.4 billion, he and his family rank among the Forbes richest people in the world. He is the third son of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chull.

An avid sportsman, he was instrumental in the successful third attempt to bring the 2018 Winter Olympics to Pyeongchang.

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Quotes

"One genius can feed millions of others. For the upcoming era where creativity will be the most important driver of business success, we need to hire the best. The economic value of one genius is more than $1 billion."

"The business world has changed significantly. It is becoming increasingly difficult to foresee what sectors will prosper or opportunities will arise in the future. But if you hire the best and brightest, you will solve whatever issues arise in the future."

"It is difficult to understand the true dimensions of a problem or a situation when so many things seem to be happening on the surface. This is why I urge my employees to analyze a given situation from various perspectives. This way of thinking allows one to see the true aspects of a situation, which, in turn, allows one to respond wisely."

"Firing a CEO because his financial performance was poor is simply a bad decision. I've encountered several situations where a CEO once performed poorly in one sector then went on to perform much better elsewhere. This is one of the reasons Japanese corporations were able to compete successfully against US corporations."

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kun-hee