User:ReVeluv02/sandbox/Lee Sung-soo

Lee Sung-soo (이성수; also spelled Lee Sung-su; born 1979) is a South Korean music production director and A&R executive. He is the current CEO of SM Entertainment and has formally served as a production division head of the company and CEO of SM Entertainment USA. Lee began working for SM as early as 1998 as a part-timer and officially joined the agency in 2005 in charge of the company's music production and A&R.

Life and career
Born in 1979, Lee Sung-soo graduated from the Department of International Trade at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. Lee began working for SM Entertainment as early as 1998 as a part-timer focused on partaking in various tasks, such as identifying fan club trends, before officially joining the company in 2005. He joined SM in 2005 as an intern while attending university and has been in charge of the company's music, serving as the head of the production headquarters, managing A&R, and overseeing the music production, and is also the nephew of Lee Soo-man. Lee then had been in control of A&R and has risen to the present position and directed 80 percent of the group's artists' production. Before formally entering the company, he attended SM Academy, where he studied computer composition and arrangement and stated that he should "know how to make music to be good at A&R".

As he was the head of the SM producer's office and an A&R director, Lee stayed abroad for a third of the year and formed a "strong" network with foreign composers, and hosted songwriting camps for SM with them and the company's composers. Lee started teaming up with foreign composers in the early 2000s. He didn't know anything beforehand and stated that he just "recklessly" participated in music events held abroad and started looking for composers. Over the years, he checked and selected talented composers and compiled them into a list, and within SM, they formed a studio that could operate a songwriting camp all year round. When he joined A&R in 2005, Lee had also experienced working as a member of a thin-film transistor (TFT) that did research and development (R&D) work to create music videos and content using 3D videos, a "special" project of Lee Soo-man.

On March 10, 2020, SM announced through the board of directors that Lee Sung-soo, general director of music production, with Tak Young-joon, general director of artist management, were appointed as co-CEOs of the company. Through the announcement of the company's appointment of two new executives, Lee has been appointed as the chief executive officer (CEO), with Tak as the chief marketing officer (CMO), as SM celebrated its 25th year. Before becoming the CEO, he was an expert in the field of production and has been one along with Tak as the key figure who has kept and led the growth of SM. He was also in charge of producing music, was a member of the company's core organization of A&R, and has been responsible for the songs and concepts of SM's artists such as BoA, Girls' Generation, Exo, Red Velvet, and NCT. Lee also formerly served as the head of the production division in 2015 and CEO of SM Entertainment USA in 2019 and developed SM's core technology, culture technology (CT), and A&R system.

Accolades
SM Entertainment was selected in the job creation category of the Korea Creative Management 2020 award for two consecutive years. Lee Sung-soo was mentioned as having a pivotal role in establishing SM as a "leading entertainment company in Asia," adding that Lee maintained the company's musical color and completeness due to operating and developing his system with producer Lee Soo-man since the mid-2000s. Lee was on the list of Billboard's 2022 Indie Power Players, along with Tak Young-jun, with Lee expressing his satisfaction with their achievement being noticed as the "trailblazers in the global music industry during such an exciting time for K-pop".