10 employees picked for luncheon with Samsung chief

"Lunch with the chairman!"

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of Lee Kun-hee`s reign as Samsung Electronics chairman, Samsung Group on Wednesday selected 10 employees from the conglomerate`s affiliates to have dinner with Lee.

The chairman has sought to meet more employees and has sat down with marketing and regional experts and promoted female staff, but this is the first time for him to see employees through an open application process.

The group announced the 10 lucky employees through its company intranet, including Kim Do-yeong from Samsung Electronics, Geum Sang-uk from Samsung Techwin, and Kim Yeon-joo from Samsung Display. Four of them were from Samsung Electronics and one each from Samsung Techwin, Samsung Display, Samsung SDS, Cheil Industries, Samsung Life Insurance and Samsung Heavy Industries. By position, seven were managers, one was a senior manager, and two were non-managers. The gender ratio was an even 50-50.

A foreign employee of a marketing team at Samsung Electronics Suwon office was also included. Born in India, he entered the company in 2006.

The two female employees selected for the chairman`s luncheon were Choi Hui-gyeong, a designer at Samsung Heavy Industries, and Lee Myeong-nyeong, who hails from the male-dominated catapulting division of Cheil Industries.

The 10 staff members will have lunch with Chairman Lee next month at a restaurant next to his office at Samsung Electronics headquarters.

Samsung Group posted the luncheon June 25 on the Media Samsung intranet. The conglomerate`s employees responded with more than 170,000 replies and 536 posts. More than 2,000 people applied with the reason for wanting to eat lunch with the chairman for a competitive ratio of 200:1.

The conglomerate will offer souvenirs to 250 employees who sent wonderful messages but failed to make the final selection.

American investment mogul Warren Buffett once held an auction for people to have lunch with him, donating the proceeds to charity.

jaeyuna@donga.com