Samsung CEO Jong-hee Han has died
139 comments
·March 25, 2025rickdeckard
moandcompany
JH Han came from Samsung's Visual Display (tvs, smart tvs) business unit which is part of Samsungs larger consumer electronics business which includes things such as home appliances. Mobile electronics such as Galaxy brand smart phones are another business, and Han was promoted to lead the businesses spanning all of those groups, which was (re)named to called "Device Experience (DX)". Samsung's semiconductor fabrication and component businesses have normally had a separate "CEO" from the consumer electronics finished products businesses (aka. "SET")
yard2010
I wonder if they had 3 CEOs because the name means 3 stars in korean
moandcompany
The company name of "Samsung" originates from the founder's admiration of Japanese companies such as Mitsubishi, known as "keiretsu" and their place in its economy; he hoped that his company would also endure as a shining symbol in the sky, like stars. Mitsubishi means three stars in Japanese language.
Samsung the company started as something resembling a dry goods market.
themaninthedark
Pendant correction: The bishi in Mitsubishi translates more closely to rhombus or diamond.
kurthr
I thought Mitsubishi was 三菱 for Three Diamonds? Seems to go better with their log.
Mitsuboshi, 三つ星, would I think be for three stars, particularly the stars of Orion's belt.
"According to Samsung's founder, the meaning of the Korean hanja Samsung (三星) is three stars."
https://news.samsung.com/global/20-things-you-didnt-know-abo...
m4rtink
I thought Mitsubishi means 3 diamonds ?
https://www.mitsubishielectric.com/en/about/history/logo/log...
rntksi
Just a week or so ago, Samsung chairman Lee Jae-yong told everyone in Samsung that there's only a "do or die" attitude.
https://www.kedglobal.com/leadership-management/newsView/ked...
AzzyHN
Guess he made his choice
tartoran
If it's a suicide you may be onto something. If died of natural causes though, it's a poor taste joke.
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whycome
> Based on the notice Samsung published, Han's co-CEO Young-Hyun Jun is now the sole CEO of the company. Jun, who also heads Samsung's semiconductor business, was appointed as Han's co-CEO in November 2024.
I guess he had been co-CEO since November. That’s about as smooth of a transition one could hope for? (As far as the company welfare goes.) My thoughts are with his family. An abrupt loss like this must be painful.
douglee650
This is Engadget's error, but the name would be Y(o)ung Hyun-Jun, where Yung is the last name, and Hyun-Jun is his "first+middle" name
lvl155
Apparently he died at his daughter’s wedding. That’s an awful way to go.
lqet
I always shudder at the following: all three brothers of Charlotte Roche [0] were killed in a car crash on their way to her wedding.
itsoktocry
Johnny Gaudreau, NHL star, and his brother Matthew were hit and killed by a drunk driver while in New Jersey for their sister's wedding last summer.
FirmwareBurner
Could be worse. At least he got to live to see his daughter get married before logging out. I call that a win.
netsharc
But every wedding anniversary of the daughter will be bittersweet...
dan_can_code
A yearly reminder of the most painful and beautiful moments that can happen in a human life. Damn.
FirmwareBurner
Everyone dies eventually, it's inevitable, you can't schedule your parents death when it's convenient for you. It's just how it is, and we're all adults, why try to sugarcoat it?
moandcompany
I don't know much about his family life, but it's very plausible that he spent more time working during his lifetime than with his family, and this is a good take. Considering the company's state of affairs, I would assume he was under a tremendous amount of work-related stress during the last few years, if not the majority of his career, peaking in this role.
geodel
I would assume he would be in work related stress for decades but daughter's wedding preparation, considering how stressful asian weddings are, pushed him over the edge.
cinntaile
What a great way to remember your wedding!
coolThingsFirst
cut him some slack he didn't think that far
it's HN.
swah
I added this heuristic to my mind "Do not assume you will live until 90" when my dad also passed on his 60s. But he was a smoker. Until then I was thinking all my uncles that died in their 60s was because of heavy drinking (bottle of whisky a day or something)
piyuv
I see all these rich-famous people, having all the money for all the best care in the world, dying in 50s-60s and I get more and more anxious.
astrange
Healthcare doesn't do very much compared to not doing the unhealthy things in the first place, and being rich lets you buy a lot of unhealthy things.
woodrowbarlow
on the flipside -- avoiding unhealthy things, especially environmental health factors like carcinogens and microplastics, often requires a certain level of wealth.
noncoml
Healthcare can buy you regular screenings to catch problem much earlier on, when there is better chance to cure them
norir
I have the opposite reaction.
piyuv
Because of their stress levels and possible smoking/drinking/drugs? I don’t buy into “yeah they’re rich/famous but that’s a lot of stress” narrative.
jillyboel
If you want to die you don't have to wait for it
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toomuchtodo
Related:
Samsung Electronics Says Co-CEO Han Jong-Hee Has Died at 63 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43466951 - Mar 2025 (no comments)
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rm_-rf_slash
Heart attack at 63. What a shame. Guy worked at the company longer than I’ve been alive and all he has to show for it is an inheritance and obituary. Makes you wonder what we’re working so hard for.
awongh
Maybe you're not familiar with the Chaebol system in Korea, but the leadership of Samsung is like some kind of modern-day monarchy-(not necessarily the CEO but the founding Lee family are royalty in the inheritance sense)- Samsung the company exists as a sort of independent nation-state that drives the Korean economy. (this guy was in charge of about 1/4 of the GDP of the entire economy of Korea)
Saying "all he has to show for it" is like saying all Jimmy Carter got was 4 years of stress.
mathgladiator
It's a good question.
My home was recently destroyed by fire (not a total loss of dwelling, but 95% of contents due to smoke and water), and I'm quitting tech to accept being a rancher and body builder.
I love tech, but tech doesn't love me. So, #yolo on to the next thing.
Workaccount2
Just a heads up, this only works well if you have a nice cushion of cash to do it on.
Someone with 30% tech ability will easily out-earn someone with 100% ranching ability. And have way more free time. And live way more comfortably.
Don't be fooled, the greenest grass is in the tech sector (and finance too).
bluGill
Ranchers make far more money than you think. They have to manage years where they are losing $100,000 per month, but the good years they make more than enough to make up for that. The hard part is getting started. You can't make a ranch work on just a little bit of land, you need thousands of acres of land in an area where you can get to all those plots every day.
Getting bank loans on that means most ranchers start at 20 with a few acres (that is a ranching/farming hobby) and a full time job to pay the bills - the ranch itself isn't even paying for the land loans, but it is close and their job pays the rest. Then they build trust with the bank and buy more land as it becomes possible. At 40 they have paid off the initial land (or at least inflation means the payments are tiny in current money) and so they are generating enough income to quit the full time job and farm. At 60 they have paid off most of the land which is now worth millions and so are rich by any measure in ways most tech jobs cannot get to (though if you happen to be one of the lucky early people in in a successful startup you are doing much better, your odds as a rancher are probably better than that).
Beware though that ranching is physically hard on the body. Farming is one of the most dangerous jobs humans do, there is a real risk you will die before you get rich. Even if you do get rich there is real risk that you will be in poor health and unable to do it. Or you could end up like my uncle who loved the ranch so much he basically never left it - he died with millions in the bank while wearing clothes he had been patching for 40 years.
jonnybgood
Not everything is about how much money you’ll make.
rurp
I think their whole point was that it's not just about the money to them. If they love being outside and working with their hands far more than being in an office and can make a living ranching it seems like a smart move to me, regardless of the salary difference.
Imustaskforhelp
Sorry for your loss.
But may I ask, about the comment "I love tech, but tech doesn't love me"
Where does this really arise from?
I have some theories and feel free to tell me which one is the right one:- 1)Does this arise from the fact that tech is excessively used to create AI coder assistants to take the coders out in the first place
2)Does this arise from the fact that you feel as if you are a working machine in a cog, like most of what coders do in tech is unethical or useless in terms of human resourcefulness (asking because I saw one hackernews post about it some day where the guy was a microsoft engineer working on some project that he believed to have no impact other than surveillance)
Because these were the two theories as to why you might feel like that way. And I am genuinely interested in what you believe.
Curious for your response!
tmpz22
Not OP but the business of western tech places absolute minimum value on individuals and relationship building. It's all short term gain at the expense of all else. I'd expect the average tech employee to live shorter less fulfilled lives despite their wealth.
[1]: What makes a good life lessons from the longest study on happiness (Harvard) - https://www.ted.com/talks/robert_waldinger_what_makes_a_good...
[2]: The secret to living longer may be your social life - https://www.ted.com/talks/susan_pinker_the_secret_to_living_...
nashashmi
Creators of tech vs users of tech are very different mindsets. My guess is the creators culture is not something you can just learn and work with. There is an inherent egotistical nature in the creator. And sometimes that is a difficult situation to work with .
yesimahuman
I sold my startup and got out of tech and I’m much happier. Didn’t fully understand how miserable the whole industry and the long hours sitting at the computer were making me. Good luck with the new life!
selimthegrim
What are you doing now?
gardenhedge
What was the startup?
par
would love to follow your progress if you're going to be publicly blogging it (would be ironic, i know.) Also, really sorry for your loss. Was it the palisades fire?
avandekleut
Good luck! Your username suits you.
freedomben
In 3 to 5 years once AI is doing most of our tech jobs, we may look back on this comment as someone with laser vision
maxloh
It's common for Asian people, especially Asian men, to work like hell for their parents and children, and not really think about what other life choices they have.
That's caused by social values and expectations – people think you are disrespectful to your parents if you don't provide them and carry on the family name.
That happened to my dad too. He worked really hard for his family, but as his child, it is crystal clear to me that he doesn't enjoy childcare.
The situation is improving as the new generation puts more focus on their own life. But it's still a long way to go.
rayiner
Is that an improvement, or is it just more of a western mentality? I was raised by asian parents (who had no life of their own), and my wife was raised by Anglo American parents (who “put more focus on their own life”). And from my perspective as a child, I’d rather have my upbringing than her’s.
And I’m happy to pay it forward and do for my kids what my parents did for me. I think “choices” are vastly overrated. I don’t think my kids would be happy if I quit my high paying job to pursue my dreams or whatever. Not that there’s anything else I would want to do! Part of what makes the Asian mentality work is that you avoid “grass is greener on the other side” thinking that will just leave you discontented. For all the talk of “choice”—Americans don’t really that happiness is itself a choice. You can choose to be happy doing what you have to do.
yhavr
> I don’t think my kids would be happy if I quit my high paying job to pursue my dreams or whatever
Wasting life on a lifestyle one doesn't enjoy, just to raise another generation of life-wasters? I don't get this ponzi scheme at all.
makeitdouble
> Not that there’s anything else I would want to do!
That's the key part IMHO. If you're happy with the balance you landed on, why not.
I think some kids really benefit from the traditional Asian style, and they reach levels that would be hard to reach otherwise. The main issue is not all kids are in that boat, and they'll need to be miserable for a pretty long time before the parents change course and try alternative approaches (if they ever do).
Only the parents can decide if they want to force the square peg into a perfect round hole, and if the kid will thank them later or hate them for life (or jump through a window, shortening the waiting time). Even in Asia not all parents want to take that risk.
KPGv2
> or is it just more of a western mentality
Where do you get the idea that "have kids and treat them as a side thought" is a Western mentality? In the West, we usually use prophylactics to avoid kids until we want them. That's why the birth rate is so low.
boringg
Having seen both perspectives I think a happy medium is possible. The self centered nature of some parents of the western societies doesn't really end up helping out the children whereas the complete abandonment of self for the sake of family also has limitation.
maxloh
The contradiction of those traditional life goals: providing for parents and having descendents, isn't about abandoning one's children. Rather, it's about making those choices willingly and consciously, and without sacrificing your own well-being.
Many Asian parents treat their children as their "retirement plan", which places a significant "debt" on those children after they graduate from college (or high school). They're also often expected to have at least one male descendant to carry on the family name, who, in return, is expected to ensure their financial support after they retire, just like how they did to their parents.
This system is an infinite loop that places a massive financial burden on everyone in society, consuming their lives, and ultimately benefiting no one. It's good to provide for loved ones and raise children, but both are significant commitments and should be considered choices, not obligations.
tw1984
> It's common for Asian people
It is only common in Northeast Asia (China, Japan and Korea).
thehappypm
Sidebar but don’t those countries usually get called “ East Asia”? Northeast Asia would more accurately be Siberia
acheong08
Southeast as well (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, etc). I don't know much about South and West Asian cultures
ctxc
+India :)
screye
Yep.
Jong-Hee was self-made, and did not come from a Chaebol family. Samsung is controlled by the (founding) Lee family, and as of 2025, Samsung's executive chairman (Lee Jae-yong) is the family patriarch.
Samsung might not have been his baby, but glad he could taste the very pinnacle of power in SK before death came knocking.
chirau
What do you mean 'all he has to show for it is an inheritance and obituary'? What else was he supposed to have or anyone else for that matter? I'd think inheritance covers a lot at the very least.
Imustaskforhelp
I mean, maybe he meant to point out that south korea as a country focuses way too much on this work culture and he might've sacrificed his precious family time / just became a "well off cog" in this huge machine.
Maybe he was passionate. Maybe he felt obliged / motivated even to prove to others who helped him get to CEO that he was the right choice.
But in the end , like all people , he died.
In the end , all he had after all his efforts were inheritance and obituary.
We might never know if his final moments were full of regret or full of acceptance & happiness.
Death is just one breath away. Knocking on our doors. Our fragile egos can't understand death but it very desperately tries to.
I am not sure why but I really wish to end my comment with the famous quote by Albert Camus, "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." (Not sure, if it really relates to the other paragraphs in this comment but I for one felt like that so I am just writing it out here)
rm_-rf_slash
Not SK in particular but the point of all of this in general, especially for those who have reached such heights.
63 is a young age to die in a rich country, especially for a corporate titan. Warren Buffett has been at the helm of Berkshire Hathaway an entire-my-lifetime of years between him and Jong-hee Han.
Gabe Newell famously has yachts around the world, explores the oceans and seems to be enjoying the fruits of his labor without kicking the bucket immediately after the release of Half Life 2.
Chuck Feeney made himself a multi billionaire and impressively gave it all away to charity within his lifetime. While so many plutocrats would “pledge” their wealth after death, Feeney had the stones to do it while he drew breath, earning him a high seat in the pantheon of philanthropy.
So what’s the point of all this work if it buys you an early grave? I’m sure he would have enjoyed a comfortable and lengthy retirement with his family, if he could’ve gotten there.
PaulHoule
I mean, everybody dies.
adamlgerber
Building and growing a business of any size is probably one of the most intellectually stimulating lives possible. People work for years without any where close to his amount of engagement with the world.
boringg
More like you are pushing your perspective out here. You think he didn't enjoy being in charge of an organization that was building some remarkable products and pushing the possibility of what humanity can build?
I think maybe you would prefer sitting on a beach doing nothing but I bet you this person enjoyed what they were doing on the whole.
Nifty3929
Some people are working as hard as they can for humanity in general. It's still "for them" in the sense that this is what drives and motivates them. But we're all the winners. These are the folks that work long hours at the expense of their own health and family relationships. These are the folks that people ask about "don't they already have enough money" - when it's not about the money at all. It's about doing and creating and building something better for humanity. Sometimes these are our best corporate leaders, or government officials, or scientists, or even revolutionaries and cultural leaders.
I'm very grateful for these people.
dankobgd
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drpossum
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brink
If you're wishing hell on other people, you don't understand hell.
drpossum
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dang
We've banned this account for posting too many unsubstantive and flamebait comments (not just in this thread but in many others).
That's not allowed here—it's not what the site is for, and destroys what it is for.
If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
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justlikereddit
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Just for clarification, Samsung has two CEO's:
The deceased Han Jong-hee was a Co-CEO and Vice-Chairman, just like Jun Young-hyun who now remains as the sole CEO.
This was not a planned transition or coincidence, Samsung usually had 3 parallel CEO's since 2013 and downsized to two CEO's in 2021, all of those being "Vice-Chairman".
On top there is still the Samsung Electronics Chairman, Lee Jae-yong...