[이코노믹리뷰=최진홍 기자] Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong is expected to retire from the chairmanship of the Samsung Life Insurance Foundation.
The foundation was established in 1982, and Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong took over as chairman of the board from his father, late Chairman Lee Kun-hee. Considering that the chairman of the foundation, who took the lead in overall Samsung, is serving as the chairman of the foundation, the inauguration of Vice-Chairman Lee at the time was regarded as the message of a new change for Samsung.
According to the business community on the 21st, Vice-Chairman Lee became the chairman of the Samsung Life Insurance Public Interest Foundation in 2015, but the problem was that he was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for the case of the Gukjeong Nonongdan.
This is because there were reasons for disqualification as a director of a social welfare corporation. Under the current Social Welfare Business Act,’a person who has been sentenced to imprisonment equal to or greater than the safeguard and has not passed three years from the date the execution is terminated or the execution is exempted’ cannot become an executive, such as a director of a social welfare corporation.
The foundation is expected to hold the board of directors next month to follow the procedure for resignation and successor of Vice Chairman Lee.
Meanwhile, Samsung has four public interest foundations, including the Samsung Life Insurance Foundation, the Samsung Welfare Foundation, the Samsung Cultural Foundation, and the Hoam Foundation. The chairman of the Samsung Welfare Foundation is chaired by former Samsung C&T President Lee Seo-hyun, vice chairman Lee Jae-yong’s younger brother, and former Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik is the chairman of the Samsung Cultural Foundation and Ho-Am Foundation.