Lee Myung-bak

President

Date of Birth: 19/12/1941
Place of Birth: Osaka

Lee Myung-bak has kept Africa high on his agenda and has continued his predecessor’s Africa-friendly policies. A second Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Conference was held in 2008, emulating the investment and development forums that China and Japan have successfully organised. 

Since reaffirming his commitment to Africa in his 2010 New Year message, Lee has sent a succession of diplomats to the continent. This month, the state-owned Korea National Oil Company expressed interest in helping Ghana National Petroleum Corporation buy Kosmos Energy’s stake in the Jubilee field.

Lee’s political career was launched on the back of a successful stint in business, but his origins were humble. He was born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan, where his father was a labourer on a cattle farm. Lee worked his way through Korea University by collecting garbage, according to his autobiography. A student activist, he was arrested in 1964 during a protest against the Seoul-Tokyo talks that led to normalised political relations with Japan, the former coloniser of South Korea.

Following graduation, Lee joined Hyundai Construction and was assigned to work on a highway construction project in Thailand. Three years later, he returned to Seoul and began a rapid ascent: by 1976, aged just 35, he was Hyundai’s Chief Executive. He became Chairman in 1988. 

 Lee’s entry into politics began in 1992, when he joined the Democratic Liberal Party and won a National Assembly seat. He was re-elected in 1996 but stepped down two years later after an investigation found he had broken campaign-spending rules. His campaign to be Seoul mayor in 2002 was also marred by improprieties. In 2007, he mounted a successful run at the presidency as the candidate of the conservative Grand National Party.