Founder Profile
Lee Hae-jin
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Lee Hae-jin?
Lee Hae-jin is a founder of NAVER Corporation, which was founded in 1999.
- Company founded
- NAVER Corporation
- Founded
- 1999
Background
Lee Hae-jin studied computer science at Seoul National University and earned a master's degree from KAIST before joining Samsung SDS, where he led the in-house team that built the Web Glider search engine.
Founding Story
Lee Hae-jin founded Naver in 1999 after spinning his search project out of Samsung SDS. He oversaw the 2000 merger with Hangame that created NHN, the launch of Knowledge iN and the 2013 separation of NAVER from NHN's games business. After years as Global Investment Officer focused on overseas deals, he returned as chairman of the board in 2025 and remains NAVER's largest individual shareholder.
Lee Hae-jin was born in 1967 in South Korea.