© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Jay Y. Lee arrives at a court in Seoul, South Korea, October 26, 2021. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
SEOUL (Reuters) – Samsung Electronics (OTC:)’ de facto leader Jay Y. Lee has been named executive chairman of the company, it said on Thursday, a symbolic move heralding that South Korea’s most valuable company will be officially run by the third generation of its founding family.
The change reflects a role Lee has held since his father, the late patriarch and Samsung (KS:) Group chairman Lee Kun-hee, was hospitalised in 2014 and died in 2020, analysts said.
Lee, 54, has been vice chairman of Samsung Electronics, the crown jewel of South Korea’s biggest business conglomerate, since 2012.
