In a major shake-up, Mr Lee, 41 , became chief operating officer at Samsung
Electronics. Some of South Korea’s financial community had expected an even
more spectacular coronation, but the new chief executive job went to Choi
Gee-sung, who had previously headed the telecommunications and digital media
businesses.

Still, Mr Lee’s new job is a dramatic step into the limelight from his less
visible role building relations with key customers such as Sony. His
promotion also keeps alive the idea that the Lee family will keep its
dynastic foothold on South Korea’s most important company.

Samsung Electronics said it was overhauling its business structure to create
seven independent companies under one umbrella. Under this new model, it
would fall to Mr Lee to "help expedite decision making, improve
efficiency, and mediate between our business units, ensuring that they work
well together in meeting our customers’ needs."

Samsung is the world’s biggest maker of memory chips and the world’s number
two mobile-phone handset maker after Nokia. Like many other South Korean
companies, it has gained market share through the economic downturn and
posted robust profits. Net third-quarter profit tripled to Won3,723bn
($3.2bn) from Won1,219bn a year earlier.

Long seen as the Samsung heir apparent, Mr Lee, informally known as Jay Y, is
as close as South Korea gets to royalty. Dashing and polished, Mr Lee has
proved a natural target for the tabloid press and details of his divorce
gripped the nation like a soap opera this year.

With a background in Asian studies, he did an MBA at Keio University in Japan
and started studies at Harvard Business School. His fluent Japanese has
helped him build a rapport with Japanese companies that sometimes occupy a
difficult middle ground, being both competitors and customers.

His elevation will, however, revive the heated debate on how the Lee family
secured its continued influence in Samsung. Lee Jae-yong himself was cleared
of any wrong-doing in a wide-ranging probe last year into Samsung's alleged
slush funds, bribery payments and illegal bond transactions that helped the
Lee family keep its power.

However, his father, Lee Kun-hee, the man who transformed the company from a
copy-cat manufacturer into one of the world's leading companies, has been
convicted of breach of trust for the cut-price bond deals that helped pass
the business to his only son. He has resigned the chairmanship.

Despite the conviction, business groups are seeking an official government
amnesty for Lee Kun-hee. This is partly inspired by his role as a
nation-builder but also because it could help him to reassume his place on
the International Olympic Committee, from where he would be well placed to
lobby for South Korea to be awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Dit artikel is oorspronkelijk verschenen op z24.nl