Hong Ra-hee (; born 15 July 1945) is a South Korean billionaire businesswoman who is the director of

Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art The Leeum Museum of Art () is a museum in Hannam-dong, Yongsan District, Seoul, South Korea. It is run by the Samsung Foundation of Culture. It is considered one of South Korea's top three private art museums. The museum consists of two parts, on ...

. She is the widow of

Lee Kun-hee Lee Kun-hee (; 9 January 194225 October 2020) was a South Korean businessman who served as the chairman of Samsung from 1987 to 2008 and from 2010 to his death in 2020. He is also credited with the transformation of Samsung to one of the world' ...

, who was the richest person in South Korea. She is known as the most powerful art collector in South Korea. She is among the richest people in South Korea. In December 2024,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The co ...

estimated her net wealth at

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

3.1 billion and ranked her 7th richest in the country.

Career

Hong graduated from Seoul National University. She majored in Applied Arts. She is the co-founder of

, which she has built with her husband in 2004. Hong's collection includes

Lee Ufan Lee Ufan (, ; born 1936) is a South Korean minimalist painter, sculptor, and academic, known for innovative bodies of work emphasizing process, materials, and the experiential engagement of viewer and site, and critiques of European phenomenology ...

Do-ho Suh Do Ho Suh (; born 1962) is a South Korean artist who works primarily in sculpture, Installation art, installation, and drawing. Suh is well known for re-creating architectural structures and objects using fabric in what the artist describes as an ...

, Whanki Kim,

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko ( ; Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz until 1940; September 25, 1903February 25, 1970) was an American abstract art, abstract painter. He is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular reg ...

, and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (;''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''"Warhol" born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director and producer. A leading figure in the pop art movement, Warhol ...

. Hong began her career at JoongAng Ilbo Publishing from 1975 to 1980. She served as a Chairperson of Samsung Arts and Cultural Foundation since 1995.

Family

Her daughters are joint presidents of

Samsung C&T Corporation Samsung Construction and Trading Corporation (; stylized as Samsung C&T) is a South Korean construction and engineering company. It was founded in 1938 as the first Samsung company and was initially involved in construction and overseas trading ...

, while her daughter Lee Seo-hyun oversees Samsung's fashion division, and her other daughter Lee Boo-jin oversees the resort division, which included the

Everland Resort Everland Resort () is a theme park and vacation resort located in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. It is owned and operated by Samsung Everland. The resort opened in April, 1976, as a single theme park ( Everland), but developed into a resort w ...

. Her father Hong Jin-ki was chairman of

JoongAng Ilbo ''The JoongAng'', formerly known as ''JoongAng Ilbo'' (), is a South Korean daily newspaper published in Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the three biggest newspapers in South Korea, and a newspaper of record for South Korea. The paper also pu ...

, and also an identified

Chinilpa From the late 19th century and until 1945, a number of ethnic Koreans worked with the Empire of Japan. Some of these figures contributed to or benefitted from Japan's colonization of Korea, and some actively worked to counter the Korean independe ...

. Her brother

Hong Seok-hyun Hong Seok-hyun (born 20 October 1949) is a South Korean media mogul and diplomat who is the chairman of JoongAng Holdings, the Korea Peace Foundation, and the Korea Baduk Association. He is a brother-in-law of Lee Kun-hee. In 1994 he became th ...

is the ex-CEO of JoongAng Media Group. It is now run by Hong Jeongdo, Hong's nephew. Her ex-daughter-in-law was Lim Se-ryung, the daughter of Daesang Group's chairman Lim Chang-Wook. Lim was married to Hong's son

Lee Jae-yong Lee Jae-yong (; born June 23, 1968) is a South Korean business executive who has served as the executive chairman of Samsung Electronics since October 2022. He is the only son of Lee Kun-hee and Hong Ra-hee. As of December 2024, Lee has an e ...

in 1998 and divorced in 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hong, Ra-hee South Korean billionaires Samsung people Living people 1944 births Female billionaires Lee family (South Korea) Seoul National University alumni South Korean art collectors