Lee Byung-chul

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.