Chong Moon Lee (, born 1928) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded
Diamond Multimedia
Diamond Multimedia is an American company that specializes in many forms of multimedia technology. They have produced graphics cards, motherboards, modems, sound cards and MP3 players, however the company began with the production of the TrackS ...
in 1982; after stepping down from Diamond, he founded
AmBex Venture Partners in 1996.
Early life
Lee was born in
Dangjin
Dangjin () is a city in South Chungcheong Province,
South Korea. It stands on the south shore of the Bay of Asan. Dangjin borders Incheon, Pyeongtaek, and Hwaseong by sea, and Seosan, Yesan, and Asan by land. Its name means "Tang ferry," an ...
, near
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 of ...
, on August 1, 1928 to a father who traded Chinese herbal medicine.
He was the youngest of five children.
Leaving school at 12 because his family could not afford the fees, Lee spent his "teenage years repairing fishing boats, mixing and slicing Chinese herbs and cleaning a pawnshop."
Lee claims to be descended from King
Sejong the Great.
Career
During the
Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, Lee worked as a translator for the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
.
[ He also started working for his family's pharmaceutical business, , in 1955.][ Chong Kun Dang was founded by his older brother, , in 1941. Despite working full-time, he was able to study and sit for the national college entrance exam, earning a place in university. He graduated from the law school at ]Chung-Ang University
Chung-Ang University (CAU; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is widely regarded as one of the best universities in South Korea. The university operates two campuses: main campus located in Dongjak District, Seoul, and ...
in 1953 with an LLB
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...
degree and later won a Korean government-sponsored scholarship for graduate studies in library science at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
, receiving a MS degree in 1959.
After returning from his studies in the United States, Lee resumed work at Chong Kun Dang. He also served the Third Republic of Korea
The Third Republic of South Korea was the government of South Korea from December 1963 to November 1972. The Third Republic was founded on the dissolution of the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction that overthrew the Second Republic and ...
as a translator, starting in 1965.[ He emigrated to the US in 1970, shortly after a forced constitutional amendment allowed South Korean President Park Chung-hee to run for a third term; after arriving in America, Lee ran an export business, selling golf balls and other closeout items to Japan.] He brought his wife and children to America six months later.[
]
Diamond Multimedia
Starting in 1977, Lee served as a consultant to technology companies to help them market and export to Asian countries.[ He purchased two personal computers for his children: an Apple II in 1979 and then an IBM PC in 1982; however, he soon found that his son, for whom he had purchased the PC, was often using his sister's Apple instead because there were more educational games for the Apple. He founded Diamond Computer Systems in 1982 with the goal of creating an emulation card that would allow the IBM to run Apple software, but initially was not successful.][
An engineer convinced him the card, eventually released as the TrackSTAR, could be developed and marketed within six months, but it took six and a half years as the copyright issues were difficult to overcome.][ The company lost millions and Lee suffered personal setbacks including losing his home and marriage, leading him to contemplate suicide while pointing a gun to his head.] The original TrackSTAR was advertised in 1984 with both Apple and CP/M compatibility; it was later redesigned to fit in Tandy 1000
The Tandy 1000 is the first in a line of IBM PC workalike home computer systems produced by the Tandy Corporation for sale in its Radio Shack and Radio Shack Computer Center chains of stores.
Overview
In December 1983, an executive with Tandy ...
personal computers and released in January 1986.
Lee would later shift the focus of his company to multimedia in 1988, at Tandy's suggestion.[ An engineer at his company, Hyung Hwe Huh, developed a graphics accelerator that won over Gateway, a new client that would mark the start of a rapid expansion.] Diamond was ranked the 17th fastest growing private company in the US in 1993 and had a public offering in 1995. '' PC Magazine'' named Lee the innovator of the year in 1999 for the first mass-marketed MP3
MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...
player, the Diamond Rio PMP300
The Rio PMP300 is one of the first portable consumer MP3 digital audio players, and the first commercially successful one. Produced by Diamond Multimedia, it was introduced September 15, 1998 as the first in the "Rio" series of digital audio p ...
.
AmBex Venture Partners
In January 1995, Lee sold a majority stake in Diamond to Summitt Associates; with part of the $92 million he received, he started a venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...
firm named AmBex Venture Partners. He started the Asia-Pacific Information Technology Summit in 1997 to bring senior Asian and American businesspeople and officials together.
Personal life
Lee lives in Portola Valley
Portola Valley is a town in San Mateo County, California. Located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the Bay Area, Portola Valley is a small, wealthy community nestled on the eastern slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
History
Portola Val ...
with his second wife, Reiko.[
]
Philanthropy
Lee contributed $15 million in 1995 to the , seeding a relocation campaign that resulted in moving the museum from a space shared with the de Young Museum
The de Young Museum, formally the M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, is a fine arts museum located in San Francisco, California. Located in Golden Gate Park, it is a component of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, along with the California Pala ...
in Golden Gate Park to the former Main Library building in Civic Center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
.
Awards and honorary degrees
* John F. Kennedy University: PhD, Economics (1996)
* University of Seoul
The University of Seoul (UOS; ) is a municipal public university in Seoul, South Korea. UOS is famous in South Korea for a large number of alumni working as national or municipal government officials. UOS is specialized in urban science and has ...
: PhD, Engineering (1998)
* Order of Civil Merit, 1st Grade (1999)
* Seton Hall University
Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, Seton Hall is the ...
: PhD, Philosophy (2001)
* Chung-Ang University
Chung-Ang University (CAU; ) is a private research university in Seoul, South Korea. It is widely regarded as one of the best universities in South Korea. The university operates two campuses: main campus located in Dongjak District, Seoul, and ...
: PhD, Business Management (2005)
* Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, researc ...
: PhD, Engineering (2007)
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Chong Moon
1928 births
Businesspeople from Seoul
People from Dangjin
People from Portola Valley, California
American people of Korean descent
Chung-Ang University alumni
Vanderbilt University alumni
Living people