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Ilhan New
Born
Pharmaceuticals. Ilhan New returned from the United States and founded Yuhan Corporation in Seoul in 1926, under Japanese colonial rule, to make medicines for Koreans. He was also active in the independence movement. Unusually for Korean business, he handed management to professionals rather than his family and left his shares to education and welfare foundations, a model often cited as the opposite of chaebol succession. He died in 1971.
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Lee Byung-chul
Born
Samsung. Lee founded Samsung as a trading company in Daegu in 1938, then moved into sugar refining and wool textiles to replace imports after the Korean War. He launched Samsung Electronics in 1969 and in 1983 committed the group to memory chips, the bet that later made it a global leader. His record includes a 1966 smuggling scandal at a group fertiliser company. He died in 1987.
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Koo In-hwoi
Born
LG. Koo co-founded Lucky Chemical in Busan in 1947, first making a face cream and then plastic goods such as combs and toothbrushes. In 1958 he set up GoldStar, which produced the first radio made in South Korea, followed by fridges and televisions. That chemicals-to-electronics path became the LG Group, still run by his descendants. He died in 1969.
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Chung Ju-yung
Born
Hyundai. Chung, a farmer's son from what is now North Korea, ran a rice shop and a car repair garage before founding Hyundai's construction business in 1947. Government road, dam and overseas contracts built it, and in the early 1970s he started a shipyard at Ulsan while the first ships were still on order. Hyundai's growth relied on state credit and a hard-driven workforce, and the group faced bitter labour disputes. He died in 2001.
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Chung Se-yung
Born
Cars. Chung Se-yung, Chung Ju-yung's younger brother, led Hyundai Motor as it moved from assembling Ford models to designing its own car. The Pony of 1975, styled in Italy and built with Japanese engine technology, was South Korea's first mass-produced domestic car and was soon exported. The government's push for a national car industry gave Hyundai protected home sales while it learned. He died in 2005.
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Park Tae-joon
Born
Steel. Park, a former army general, was chosen by President Park Chung-hee to found the state steel company POSCO in 1968, when foreign lenders thought a Korean integrated steelworks unviable. Funded partly by Japanese post-colonial settlement money, the Pohang works opened in 1973 and became one of the world's most efficient steelmakers, supplying the shipyards and carmakers. He later briefly served as prime minister and died in 2011.
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Shin Kyuk-ho
Born
Lotte. Shin, who emigrated to Japan as a young man, founded Lotte there in 1948 selling chewing gum, then brought the business to South Korea in 1967 after diplomatic relations were restored. Lotte grew into confectionery, hotels, department stores, chemicals and the Lotte World theme park, straddling both countries. His final years were dominated by a public succession feud between his sons and a criminal conviction. He died in 2020.
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Kim Woo-choong
Born
Daewoo. Kim founded Daewoo as a small textile trader in 1967 and expanded at astonishing speed into shipbuilding, cars and electronics, often by taking over failing firms with state encouragement and borrowed money. His book about the world being wide and full of work was a bestseller. Daewoo collapsed under its debts in 1999, one of the largest corporate failures of its time, and he was later convicted of accounting fraud. He died in 2019.
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Lee Kun-hee
Born
Samsung. Lee succeeded his father in 1987 and, in a 1993 speech in Frankfurt, told managers to change everything except their wives and children, starting a drive to make Samsung compete on quality rather than price. Samsung became the world's leading memory-chip maker and a major phone brand. He was convicted of tax evasion in 2008 and pardoned, a pattern that fuelled debate over chaebol privilege. He died in 2020.
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Chung Mong-koo
Born
Cars. Chung Mong-koo took over Hyundai Motor as the Hyundai Group split after the 1997 financial crisis, absorbed the bankrupt Kia, and pushed quality hard enough to offer a ten-year powertrain warranty in the United States, turning a cheap brand into a credible one. He was convicted of embezzlement in 2007 and later pardoned. He stepped back in 2020 and is honorary chairman.
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Lee Soo-man
Born
Pop music. Lee, a former singer and broadcaster, founded SM Entertainment in 1995 and built the idol system that defines K-pop: long in-house training of young recruits, carefully produced groups such as H.O.T., BoA and EXO, and planned expansion into Japan, China and beyond. It turned popular music into a Korean export industry, though its long, restrictive trainee contracts drew criticism. He sold his SM stake in 2023.
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