Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong was appointed as chairman of the world's No. 1 maker of semiconductors and cellphones, Thursday. Lee's ascension came 10 years after he took the vice chairmanship and two years after his father Lee Kun-hee passed away. Lee has been essentially leading the nation's largest company since 2014 when his father collapsed due to a heart attack and lapsed into a coma from which he would never awaken.