Samsung to hold 25th anniversary of chairman

Lee Kun-hee

Samsung Group plans to hold a 25th anniversary commemorative ceremony of its chairman Lee Kun-hee Friday.

The celebration will be held in conjunction with an award ceremony for meritorious employees at the Hoam Art Hall, Seoul. It will start at 3:30 p.m.

The annual awards, called “Samsung Award of Honor,” was initially planned to be held at Samsung’s building at Gangnam, but the venue has changed to be opened together with commemoration of Lee. It was always held at December 1st before, an winners received their awards personally by the chairman.

This is the first time an inauguration ceremony was held for Lee who has led the group since 1988 when his father and founder of the group Lee Byung-chull passed away.

All family members are expected to make an appearance: Samsung Electronics Chief Operating Officer and heir-apparent Lee Jay-yong, his wife and the director of the Leeum Samsung Musem of Art Hong Ra-hee, his daughter and executive vice president of Cheil Industries Lee Seo-hyun and his daughter and Hotel Shilla CEO Lee Bu-jin. High-level board members at key posts will also attend.

Earlier predictions by industry observers were that Korea’s largest conglomerate would keep celebrations low-key.

The 10 years anniversary was limited to a simple publishing ceremony of an essay compilation by the chairman due to the financial crisis at the time.

A planned 20 years anniversary in 2007 was canceled due to a controversy caused by a formerly employed lawyer accusing the group of corruptions. <The Korea Times/Cho Mu-hyun>