Lee Hae-jin
Background
Lee Hae-jin began his career as an engineer at Samsung SDS, where in 1997 he led an in-house search-engine project called Naver Search, built partly in response to concerns that Korean-language search results were poorly served by early global search engines. He spun the project out as an independent company, Naver Comm, in 1999, going on to merge with the game company Hangame in 2000 to fund the fledgling search business and eventually building Naver into South Korea's dominant internet portal -- one of the few national markets where Google has never taken majority search share. Lee stepped back from the CEO role years before Choi Soo-yeon's appointment but has remained involved as a board member and strategic advisor, a pattern common among South Korea's major internet-company founders who continue to shape long-term direction without running daily operations. Lee's decision to merge the early Naver search business with Hangame in 2000, forming NHN Corporation, provided crucial gaming revenue that subsidized the search engine through the early 2000s dot-com downturn before the companies later split back into Naver and NHN Entertainment as each business matured into its own distinct, self-sustaining category leader. Lee's continued board involvement at Naver, decades after founding the company, mirrors a broader pattern among South Korea's major internet and technology founders of retaining long-term influence over strategic direction even after stepping back from operational leadership roles. Forbes has periodically ranked Lee among South Korea's wealthiest individuals based on his continued Naver shareholding, reflecting the scale of value created since the company's modest 1999 spin-out from Samsung SDS.