[Suwon=Edaily Reporter Choi Oh-hyun ] On the sixth anniversary of the passing of the late Lee Kun-Hee, former chairman of SamsungElectronics, Jay Y. Lee and executives from major affiliate companies gathered at the family cemetery in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, on the 23rd to pay their respects to the late chairman.

The memorial service was held at the family cemetery in Imok-dong, Jangan-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. Although the anniversary of the late chairman’s passing is on the 25th, the service was held two days early in consideration of the fact that the 25th falls on a Sunday.

The memorial service was held quietly, focusing on laying flowers and paying respects, without any separate official ceremonies. Chairman Lee paid tribute to the late chairman after returning to South Korea following an inspection of a thermal power plant construction site in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and heading straight to the family cemetery.

Chairman Lee arrived around 8:38 a.m. in a black Genesis and spent about 10 minutes at the gravesite, laying flowers and paying his respects. Other family members, including Hong Ra-hee, Honorary Director of the Leeum Museum of Art, are reportedly scheduled to visit the family cemetery separately according to their individual schedules.

Later, around 9:40 a.m., the presidents of Samsung Group affiliates headed to the gravesite, traveling in several vans. At last year’s fifth-anniversary memorial service, approximately 50 current executives—including members of the founding family, SamsungElectronics Vice Chairmen Jeong Hyun-ho and Jeon Young-hyun, and SamsungHeavyIndustries Vice Chairman Choi Sung-an—visited the family cemetery.

Chairman Lee is scheduled to have lunch with the presidents of major affiliate companies today at the Creative Hall of the Samsung Human Resources Development Institute in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. The Creative Hall serves as a training facility for new Samsung employees and is also the location where a bust of the late Chairman Lee is displayed. In previous years, Chairman Lee has dined with executives here after the memorial service to reflect on the late chairman’s management philosophy.

This year’s memorial service was held four days before the fourth anniversary of Chairman Lee’s appointment as Chairman of SamsungElectronics. Chairman Lee was promoted to Chairman on October 27, 2022. That year, following the late Chairman’s memorial service, he emphasized to the executive team, “Now is the time to take bolder and more challenging steps,” adding, “The more difficult and trying the times, the more we must prepare in advance and build our capabilities.”

Notably, this year’s memorial service is the first to be held since the completion of the approximately 12 trillion won in inheritance tax payments that the bereaved family had been making following the late Chairman Lee’s passing. The family had been paying the inheritance tax in installments over a five-year period beginning in 2021.

A memorial concert marking the sixth anniversary of the late Chairman Lee’s passing will also be held on the 28th at the Concert Hall of the SamsungElectronics Talent Development Center in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province. Samsung has held an annual concert attended by the bereaved family, key executives, and employees to honor the late chairman. Last year, pianist Park Jae-hong, cellist Han Jae-min, and the Los Angeles (LA) Philharmonic performed at the event.

After taking office as chairman of the Samsung Group in 1987, the late Chairman Lee successfully established SamsungElectronics as a global corporation. In 1993, he declared a “New Management” initiative in Frankfurt, Germany, emphasizing innovation centered on quality and technology. After suffering a heart attack in 2014, he battled his illness until his passing on October 25, 2020, at the age of 78.