Samsung chief is sole Korean on Fortune's 100 most influential people in business

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Samsung chief is sole Korean on Fortune's 100 most influential people in business

Published: 25 Nov. 2024, 16:15 Updated: 25 Nov. 2024, 16:48

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong is included in the list of U.S. magazine Fortune's 100 most influential people in business. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong is the sole Korean entrepreneur included on the list of U.S. magazine Fortune’s 100 most powerful people in business.

Lee ranked No. 85 on the list that was scored based on the size of the business each entrant runs based on mid-term and short-term revenue, profit growth, profitability and market value as well as the health of the business based on 12-month measures of liquidity, operating efficiency and solvency. Other factors reflected in the rankings are innovation capability, influence, career trajectory and global impact.

Fortune introduced Lee as “the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics and South Korea’s richest person,” stating that Lee had long been “groomed” to take over the chipmaker from his father, Lee Kun-hee, the former corporate chairman, and that he has been the group’s de facto leader since 2014 when his father fell into a coma after a heart attack.

The magazine also mentioned the chairman’s jail time under charges of bribery and embezzlement involving a corruption scandal tied to former President Park Geun-hye, for which he served about 18 months between 2021 and 2022.

Samsung is described as a top memory chipmaker but has, as of late, fallen behind rivals in the production of high bandwidth memory chips that are heavily consumed by AI industry players such as Nvidia.

“Though the stock has been punished this year, Samsung Electronics’ shares have doubled since 2017,” Fortune wrote.

The magazine's top picks for the list included Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and Space X, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]