This recent Wall Street Journal article titled “A Corporate Giant Lurks Behind the Winter Olympics” chronicles Samsung’s role in the Olympics. According to the article “never before have an Olympics, a host country, and a major company been so closely intertwined” and the article largely focuses on the dual role of Lee Kun-hee “as Chairman of a major Olympic sponsor [Samsung] and an International Olympic Committee member.”
According to the article, Lee (after being released from prison for breach of trust and tax evasion) spent 170 days on 11 separate trips marketing Pyeongchange to IOC voters and that some of the meetings “were arranged with the help of Europe-based Samsung staff and conducted at the company’s local offices.”
