Hyderabad : Lee Kun-hee, whose building of Samsung into a titan in semiconductors and consumer electronic products made him one of the most important figures in postwar Korean history, died Sunday in southern Seoul where he had been hospitalized for six years . He was 78 years old.
Lee Kun-hee was born on 9 January 1942 in Daegu, during the Japanese Occupation of Korea. He was the third son of Lee Byung-Chul, the founder of the Samsung group, which was set up as exporter of fruit and dried fish. He went on to get a degree in economics from Waseda University a private university in Japan, and a business degree from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
He was also a member of the International Olympic Commitee With an estimated family net worth of US$40.8 billion, and the third son of Samsung founder Lee Byung-chul he and his family were among the richest people in the world as calculated by Forbes.
