Chester Lee is currently retired and was a Senior Analyst in the American International Group (AIG) Commercial Insurance Group serving major U.S. corporations. In this role he serves as an internal management consultant in implementing major underwriting and claims systems. Prior to this, Mr. Lee was employed by IBM as the Program Director of Electronic Commerce Operations, and by Citibank as a vice president in consumer banking and private banking.                      

Mr. Lee has extensive small business experience having been involved in various start-ups including fast-food hamburger restaurants, a FM radio station in Long Island, an art supplies store in midtown Manhattan, and a community bank serving Chinese American communities in New York City.

A current board member and president of the Chinese American Planning Council, Mr. Lee is very active in the Brooklyn community as a trustee of the Brooklyn Historical Society and president of the First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn. Mr. Lee serves as chairperson of the Advisory Group at the First American International Bank and as a director of First American International Corp., the holding company for the bank..

Mr. Lee is a graduate of Columbia University with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science and an M.B.A. in Finance from the Graduate School of Business. He is very active in alumni/ae affairs at the university, serving as the current president of the Columbia Engineering School Alumni Association (CESAA), and as a board member of the Society of Columbia Graduates. As president of CESAA, he is an ex officio member of the SEAS Board of Visitors. Mr. Lee was a founding member of the Asian Columbia Alumni Association in 1995, and received the 2004 Alumni Mentor of the Year Award from the Columbia College Alumni of Color Program (ACOP). He also served on the university-wide steering committee which formulated the first constitution of the Columbia Alumni Association. He was a recipient of the University’s Alumni Medal in 2008.