The powerful Lee family exercises control over the Samsung conglomerate with Lee Kun-hee positioned as the Chairman despite repeated calls from shareholders to limit his power over the group. The family controls the conglomerate through ownership in key affiliate companies. On the other hand Chairman Lee Kun-hee has often been criticized for being too extravagant on his trips overseas, particularly for staying at expensive resort hotels and the use of a private plane. Shareholders argue that this money would be better spent on the company's employees, but the Chairman hasn't been able to publicly take a stand against these allegations given that he has not been able to fully recover from a heart attack he suffered in May last year. Reports suggest that due to his ailing health Chairman Lee Kun-hee has set the very complicated succession plan in motion.
Lee Kun-hee's son Lee Jae-yong is next in line for the proverbial throne. He's currently the vice chairman of Samsung Electronics and since his father's hospitalization he's already considered as the unofficial chairman of the conglomerate. It has been announced that Lee Jae-yong has inherited the chairmanship of two investment vehicles and charitable bodies from his father: the Samsung Foundation of Culture and Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation.
This is perceived by many industry watchers as the succession plan in motion since control of these foundations is vital because they hold stakes in key companies of the Samsung Group, they're actually believed to hold a significant part of the shareholding structure that binds the group's 74 different businesses.
