Lee Kun-hee’s Sixth-Anniversary Memorial Concert: Samsung Family and Executives, Including Lee Jae-yong, Pay Tribute to the Late Chairman

[Financial News] A memorial concert marking the sixth anniversary of the death of the late Lee Kun-hee, former chairman of Samsung, was held on the 28th at the Concert Hall of Samsung Electronics’ Human Resources Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The concert, which began at 6:40 p.m. that day, was held under the theme “The Future You Asked About First in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (AI).”
Around 900 people attended, including bereaved family members such as Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Leeum Museum of Art Honorary Director Hong Ra-hee, as well as Samsung executives and employees, students benefiting from the company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs, and representatives of partner companies. They paid tribute to the late chairman’s innovative spirit and his philosophy of supporting culture and the arts.
Among the executives in attendance were Jun Young-hyun, Samsung Electronics vice chairman, CEO and head of the Device Solutions Division; Roh Tae-moon, Samsung Electronics president, CEO and head of the DX Division; Choi Joo-sun, president of Samsung SDI; and Jang Deok-hyun, president of Samsung Electro-Mechanics.
Lee reportedly visited the Human Resources Development Center before the event to encourage newly appointed executives and outstanding employees, and had dinner with the new executives and senior management.
World-renowned pianist Seong-Jin Cho and the Vienna Philharmonic took the stage at the concert. Cho, who received the 2023 Samsung Ho-Am Prize in the Arts, also took part in the memorial concerts marking the third and fourth anniversaries of the late chairman’s death.
The concert offered an opportunity to reflect on the late chairman’s wishes. Alongside a management philosophy focused on anticipating the future, he emphasized broadening access to culture and the arts. During his lifetime, he was interested in improving people’s quality of life through the promotion of culture and stressed that companies, too, should expand their role in advancing it.
In keeping with this vision, Samsung has continued to support culture and the arts, awarding the Samsung Ho-Am Prize in the Arts each year and operating the Samsung Music Fellowship since 1997, which lends world-class fine instruments to performers free of charge.
Earlier, on the 23rd, after returning from a business trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Lee Jae-yong went straight to the family burial site in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, where the sixth-anniversary memorial service was held.
After founder-chairman Lee Byung-chul died in 1987, Lee Kun-hee became the second chairman of Samsung Group. He is credited with leading innovation throughout the group through the 1993 “New Management Initiative” and transforming Samsung into a global company. After collapsing from a myocardial infarction in 2014, he battled illness and died on October 25, 2020, at the age of 78.

[email protected] Kim Hak-jae Reporter