Hong Ra-Hee – Billionaire

Hong Ra-Hee, Samsung’s first lady, is the wife of Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-Hee, South Korea’s richest person. She resigned in March 2017 as director of the Samsung Museum of Art, known as Leeum, and the Ho-Am Art Museum. Aides cited “personal reasons,” considering that her husband is bedridden and her son, Jay Y. Lee, is in jail. Hong is an arts graduate of Seoul National University, and both museums contain collections from her father-in-law, Samsung founder Lee Byung-Chull. Leeum comes from Lee’s name and the last syllable of “museum”; Ho-Am, the patriarch’s pen name, means “lake rock,” for his breadth and strength. Her husband suffered a heart attack in 2014 and has been hospitalized since then amid a major restructuring of the family empire driven in part by the need to transfer control to the next generation. Since then, little concrete information has emerged about Lee’s condition. Hong’s only son and heir to the country’s largest conglomerate was indicted and jailed on bribery charges in February 2017. He denies any wrongdoing. Hong’s billionaire daughters run affiliate Samsung C&T. Lee Seo-Hyun heads the company’s fashion division, while Lee Boo-Jin, CEO of Hotel Shilla, oversees resort, theme park and construction activities. Hong’s father was chairman of one of Korea’s largest-circulation daily newspapers, JoongAng Ilbo. One of her brothers then took over and now his son runs it. Another brother, Hong Seok-Joh, runs the country’s biggest convenience-store chain and is also a billionaire. Although not involved in Samsung’s management, Hong gets her fortune from her stake in Samsung Electronics. She is known for being a prolific buyer of art.

Source:

1. forbes