  lee byung-chul (february 12, 1910 uiryeong, gyeongsangnam-do &ndash; november 19, 1987 seoul) was the founder of the samsung group and one of south korea's most successful businessmen. with the breakup of the hyundai chaebol, samsung is now south korea's largest business groupbang, jung-hyun, "hail the father of business, lee byung-chul", korea it times, february 11, 2010,  == early life == he was the son of a wealthy landowning family (a branch of the gyeongju lee clan). he attended college at waseda university in tokyo, but he did not complete his degree. == career == upon the early death of his father, he used his inheritance to open a rice mill in his home town of gyeongnam. === beginning === that endeavor was not especially successful so he established a trucking business in daegu on march 1, 1938, which he named samsung trading co, the forerunner to samsung.woo, jaeyeon, "memorializing the company founder, with ads, 3-d and holograms", wall street journal, july 22, 2011, korea realtime,  samsung means "three stars" which explains the initial corporate logos. by 1945 samsung was transporting goods throughout korea and to other countries. the company was based in seoul by 1947. it was one of the ten largest "trading companies" when the korean war started in 1950.watkins, thaer, "the chaebol of south korea", website, downloaded july 22, 2011,  with the conquest of seoul by the north korean army, lee was forced to relocate his business to pusan. the massive influx of u.s. troops and equipment into busan over the next year and a half of the war proved to be highly beneficial to lee's trucking company. in 1961 when general park seized power, lee was in japan and for some time he did not return to south korea. eventually a deal was struck and lee returned but samsung had to give up control over the banks it acquired and follow economic directives from park's government. === cheil worldwide === in 1953, he founded cheil s
1910_births 1987_deaths International_trade Samsung_Group_people South_Korean_businesspeople Waseda_University_alumni