Who Is Korean American Billionaire Thai Lee ’80?
24HTech.Asia shares facts about Lee, who recently ranked sixth on Forbes’ list of “America’s Richest Self-Made Women”: “The 64-year-old businesswoman is the president and CEO of SHI International, an IT provider that focuses on designing cloud, data centre and end-user computing strategies—which earned a record US$12.3 billion in revenue in 2021 alone.”
The 24HTech article draws heavily from a Winter 2016 Amherst magazine feature about Lee, written by Rand Richards Cooper ’80. It notes her double major in biology and economics, as well as her 2014 honorary Amherst doctorate and her status as a life trustee of the College. Lee was also the first Korean woman to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School.
The article explores how Lee’s family and her Buddhist faith have contributed to her success. It quotes her description of her father, internationally influential economist Daniel Kie-Hong Lee ’50 (Amherst’s first Korean graduate), as “a man of the world who believed in the power of education.”