Lee Soo-Man

Lee is a major force in the global music industry as founder of leading K-pop label SM Entertainment, which has a roster of artists that includes Super Junior, Girls’ Generation, SHINee, Red Velvet, SuperM, NCT, EXO and Aespa, as well as TV shows (“K-Pop Goes Hollywood”) and the popular fan-to-artist direct messaging app Dear U Bubble. In 2021, he put his 18.72% share of SM up for sale, as rumors swirled that South Korean media giant CJ ENM was close to buying a controlling stake in the company. In October 2021, it was reported that the massive cache of leaked financial documents known as the Pandora Papers revealed that Lee had set up eight paper companies in companies in Hong Kong to hide his wealth.