Life Summary
Lee Jay-hyun is the chairman of CJ Group.

Amid sluggish domestic demand, he is focusing on expanding the group’s global business through its subsidiaries.

He is also preparing for a succession plan centered around his son Lee Sun-ho, head of the Food Growth Division at CJ CheilJedang, and his daughter Lee Kyung-hoo, head of Brand Strategy at CJ ENM.

He was born on March 19, 1960, in Seoul, as the eldest son of the late Lee Maeng-hee, honorary chairman of CJ Group, and Sohn Bok-nam, former management advisor at CJ CheilJedang. He is also the eldest grandson of Samsung Group founder Lee Byung-chul.

Lee graduated from Kyungbock High School in Seoul and earned a law degree from Korea University.

He began his career at Citibank and joined CheilJedang as a regular employee. He later moved to the Strategic Planning Office at Samsung Electronics for a short period before returning to CheilJedang, where he was appointed CEO in 1997 and promoted to vice chairman in the same year.

In 2002, he became chairman and CEO of CJ Group.

Through an aggressive expansion strategy, he transformed CheilJedang from a food company into a business group encompassing food, logistics, biotechnology, and media.

In March 2016, he stepped down from all registered director positions at CJ affiliates. After being convicted on charges including tax evasion, he served a prison sentence and was later released through a special pardon granted on Liberation Day.

He returned to management in 2017 and has since pursued mergers and acquisitions as well as a restructuring of the group’s corporate governance.

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