Lee Seo-hyun, 51, head of the Samsung Welfare Foundation, is returning to frontline management as president of Samsung C&T, in charge of strategic planning. This move comes after a hiatus of five years and three months since she stepped down as president of Samsung C&T’s fashion division in December 2018. Lee, the second daughter of the late Chairman Lee Kun-hee and sister to Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Jae-yong, has long been responsible for fashion and advertising planning at Samsung. As the foundational and holding company at the pinnacle of Samsung Group’s governance structure, Samsung C&T will have Lee take on roles in brand integration and new business exploration.
Samsung C&T on March 29 announced the recruitment of Lee, saying, “Lee’s work experience as president of the Samsung C&T Fashion Group and president of Cheil Worldwide, in charge of management strategy, along with her expertise in successfully leading Samsung’s cultural projects and social contribution areas, is expected to contribute to enhancing Samsung C&T’s brand competitiveness.” Lee, a 1997 graduate of Parsons School of Design in the United States, has primarily worked at Cheil Industries (now Samsung C&T Fashion Group) and Cheil Worldwide. Her roles have included head of the fashion institute at Cheil Industries in 2002, executive vice president of Cheil Worldwide in 2009, and vice president in charge of the fashion business at Cheil Industries in 2010, before serving as president of the Samsung C&T Fashion Group from December 2015.
After resigning as president of the Samsung C&T Fashion Group in December 2018, Lee became head of the Leeum Museum of Art. She has been the head of the Samsung Welfare Foundation since 2019 and took charge of social contributions at Samsung Global Research (formerly Samsung Economic Research Institute) in 2022 but did not engage in major management activities. Upon her return as president of Samsung C&T next month, she will step down from her role at Samsung Global Research but will continue in her positions at the welfare foundation and museum.
Lee is set to oversee the brand strategy of Samsung C&T’s diverse business sectors. With the merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T in 2015, fashion and resort (Everland) businesses were added to the existing construction and trading businesses. Consequently, there have been calls for integrated brand management across these four divisions.
The Lee Jae-yong family exercises control over the entire Samsung Group through Samsung C&T, a de facto holding company. Chairman Lee holds 18.1%, Hotel Shilla President Lee Boo-jin holds 5.59%, Lee Seo-hyun holds 6.23%, and their mother, Hong Ra-hee, holds 0.97%. Faced with a trillion-won inheritance tax burden in 2020, the three women sold some of their shares in Samsung Electronics and others.
This article was originally published on March 30, 2024.
