Seoul, South Korea - Lee Kun-hee, the former chairperson of Samsung Electronics who was convicted of tax evasion and later pardoned by South Korea's president, has returned to lead the company after a nearly two-year absence, Samsung announced Wednesday.
Lee is a South Korean corporate icon and credited with turning the company into a major force in the global electronics industry. He was indicted on charges including tax evasion in April 2008 and resigned from his post before being convicted, fined and handed a suspended three-year prison sentence.
There had been widespread speculation in South Korea that Lee would return to the company after he received a special presidential pardon late last year.
The pardon was given to allow the billionaire business magnate to rejoin efforts to bring the Winter Olympics to South Korea after the country failed twice to bring them to PyeongChang, a mountain resort east of Seoul.
Lee is a member of the International Olympic Committee.
The decision to call Lee back to the boardroom came at a meeting on Wednesday of a committee of presidents of various Samsung businesses, said company spokesperson James Chung.
Lee, one of South Korea's richest people, is the son of the founder of the Samsung Group conglomerate, which consists of dozens of companies with interests in areas as diverse as shipbuilding, construction, fashion, leisure and finance. Samsung Electronics is the group's flagship company.
"It is a true crisis now," Lee said in a statement, apparently referring to challenges facing companies including his own. "Top rank global corporations are collapsing. That could happen sometime and somehow even to Samsung."
Such a scenario is certainly not imminent for Samsung. Lee's return comes after a record year for sales in 2009. The company said on Monday it expects double-digit percentage growth in sales this year as the global economy continues to recover.
Samsung racked up record revenue of 136.29 trillion won, or $119.72bn at current exchange rates, in 2009 on a consolidated basis - which includes the performance of its overseas and domestic subsidiaries excluding financial businesses.
Over the past decade, Samsung has become one of the world's top technology companies in both consumer electronics and some of the key components that make them operate.
The South Korea-based corporation is the world's largest manufacturer of flat screen televisions and the biggest producer of computer memory chips and liquid crystal displays. It ranks second behind Finland's Nokia in cellphones.
Lee has long been considered the driving force behind the company's rise through his focus on improving quality. But persistent questions about the company's corporate governance and its influence in South Korea have long cast a shadow over its success.
- AP