Lee Hun-jai

South Korea state institutions 1944.4.17.–

First chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, who drove financial and chaebol restructuring after the currency crisis

Born in Shanghai and raised in Seoul, Lee graduated in law from Seoul National University and passed the higher civil service examination in 1968. At the Finance Ministry he drafted the "8·3" freeze on curb-market loans, but left office over the Yulsan affair in 1979 and later worked as an executive of Daewoo affiliates. In 1998 he became the first chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission created by the Kim Dae-jung government (1998–2000), known as a ruthless business and banking reformer. He was finance minister in 2000 and again, as deputy prime minister, in 2004–05.