Members of the Samsung family and relatives are leaving by car after attending the 34th anniversary memorial service for Samsung Group founder Ho-Am Lee Byung-chul at the family burial site near Ho-Am Art Museum in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. On this day, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was absent from the memorial service due to a business trip to the United States. / Yongin ? Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heung-soon] The 34th anniversary memorial service for Hoam Lee Byung-chul, the founder of Samsung Group, was held on the 19th at his ancestral grave in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Lee Jae-yong, Vice Chairman of Samsung Electronics and Hoam's grandson, did not attend the memorial service due to a business trip to the United States.
According to the business community on the 19th, Samsung and CJ, among other groups affiliated with the broader Samsung family, held the memorial service for Lee Byung-chul near the Hoam Museum in Yongin that morning. This year's memorial service was conducted modestly with a reduced scale, including the omission of group company presidents' visits.
At Samsung, former Leeum Museum Director Hong Ra-hee, Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin, Samsung Welfare Foundation Chairperson Lee Seo-hyun, and Samsung Economic Research Institute President Kim Jae-yeol attended. Lee Jae-yong, who departed for North America on the 14th, was unable to attend the memorial service. Previously, Lee also missed the 31st anniversary memorial service in 2018 due to an overseas business trip, but at that time, he visited the ancestral grave with his family beforehand to pay respects.
After last year's memorial service, Lee Jae-yong said at a luncheon with Samsung affiliate presidents, "Companies must always contribute to the national economy and provide hope to society, inheriting and developing the founding philosophy of business patriotism taught by Chairman (Lee Kun-hee) and the late Chairman (Lee Byung-chul)."
Lee Jae-hyun, Hoam's eldest grandson and Chairman of CJ Group, visited the ancestral grave in Yongin in the morning to pay respects and plans to hold a separate memorial rite in Seoul in the evening as in previous years. Lee Myung-hee, Hoam's youngest daughter and Chairwoman of Shinsegae Group, did not visit the ancestral grave this year, as she did last year. The Shinsegae Group presidents will visit the grave in the afternoon to pay respects. Hoam's maternal grandson, Cho Dong-gil, Chairman of Hansol Group, is also scheduled to visit the ancestral grave in the afternoon.
In the past, the broader Samsung family groups including Samsung, CJ, Hansol, and Shinsegae held joint memorial services for Hoam. However, since 2012, when brothers CJ's former Chairman Lee Maeng-hee and Samsung's Lee Kun-hee engaged in an inheritance dispute, they have held separate memorial services on the same day at different times.
Meanwhile, Hoam founded Samsung Sanghoe, the precursor to Samsung Group, in Daegu in 1938. In 1969, he established Samsung Electronics Industry Co., Ltd., now Samsung Electronics, laying the foundation for a global company.
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