The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness
Asia & Pacific

Lee Kun-hee, builder of global tech giant Samsung, dies at 78

By
and 
October 25, 2020 at 5:49 a.m. EDT
Lee Kun-hee, pictured in 2010, transformed Samsung Electronics in his three decades of leadership. (Lee Jae Won/Reuters)

SEOUL — Lee Kun-hee, who built Samsung Electronics into a global tech giant but whose tenure was marred by a pair of white-collar crime convictions that were wiped away by presidential pardons, died Oct. 25. He was 78.

His death was announced by Samsung, which did not specify the cause. Mr. Lee had been treated for lung cancer in the late 1990s and was incapacitated for years after a 2014 heart attack that led his son, Jae-yong, to take over running the company.