Lee Chambers (born 22 May 1985) is a British businessman and

radio host A radio personality (American English) or radio presenter (British English) is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host, and in India and Pakistan as a radi ...

. Chambers has been interviewed by ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'', and is known for analyzing inclusion and wellbeing in the workplace. He was born in Bolton, United Kingdom, and is the founder of PhenomGames and Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing.

Early life

Chambers was born and raised in

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

. He has credited his father Delroy Chambers, a civil servant, and his mother Susan Chambers, a nanny, for his work ethic and academic achievement. He is the oldest of three brothers, and the first in his family to attend university.

Education

Chambers earned a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

in international business psychology and an

MSc MSC may refer to: Computers * Message Sequence Chart * Microelectronics Support Centre of UK Rutherford Appleton Laboratory * MIDI Show Control * MSC Malaysia (formerly known as Multimedia Super Corridor) * USB mass storage device class (USB MSC ...

in psychology from the

University of Surrey The University of Surrey is a public research university in Guildford, Surrey, England. The university received its royal charter in 1966, along with a number of other institutions following recommendations in the Robbins Report. The institut ...

. He is currently a doctoral student at

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

Career

PhenomGames

After being made redundant from a corporate finance graduate scheme at

the Co-operative Bank The Co-operative Bank plc is a retail and commercial bank in the United Kingdom, with its headquarters in Balloon Street, Manchester. The Co-operative Bank is the only UK high street bank with a customer-led Ethical Policy which is incorporat ...

, Chambers founded the video game company PhenomGames in 2008. Initially trading from his parents' house, the business expanded into Europe. While leading PhenomGames, Chambers immune system failed, leaving him immobile and having to learn to walk again. The company was sold to a Danish conglomerate in 2020.

Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing

Chambers is the founder of Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing, a company that provides mental wellbeing initiatives to other organizations. Chambers founded the business due to his own health challenges, and market opportunity for data-driven wellbeing. For his work with Essentialise, Chambers was selected as a Rising Star at the Hive Business Awards, and received a Great British Entrepreneur Award in 2021.

Other work

Chambers is part of the Oppo Color Counsel, alongside actress

Amy Jackson Amy Louise Jackson (born 31 January 1992) is a British actress and model known for her work in Indian films, predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu languages. A former Miss Teen World, Jackson has appeared in over fifteen films. She made her ...

. He has worked as a performance coach for sports clubs, including

Manchester City F.C. Manchester City Football Club are an England, English association football, football club based in Manchester that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English football. Fo ...

and

Everton F.C. Everton Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Liverpool that competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 and has compe ...

In 2021, Chambers fronted a campaign for

Charles Tyrwhitt Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts Ltd. ( ), also known as CT Shirts, is a British multi-channel clothing retailer specialising in dress shirts, ties, suits, casualwear, shoes and accessories. Founded as a mail order company in 1986 by Nicholas Wheeler w ...

, modelling for the launch of their Business of Life collection. Chambers is the host of the ''Self Aware Entrepreneur Show'' and was voted in the ''Top 50 BAME Entrepreneurs Under 50'' in 2020 alongside

Nitin Passi Nitin Passi (born November 1982) is founder and owner of fashion retailer Missguided. According to ''The Sunday Times Rich List'' in 2019, he had a net worth of £250 million. Early life Born in Cheshire, Passi grew up in Surrey and Hong ...

Eric Yuan Eric S. Yuan (; born 20 February 1970) is a Chinese-American billionaire businessman, engineer, and the chief executive officer and founder of Zoom Video Communications, of which he owns 22%. Early life Yuan is the son of geology engineers. He ...

and

Rangan Chatterjee Rangan Chatterjee is a British physician, author, television presenter and podcaster. He is best known for his TV show ''Doctor in the House'' and for being the resident doctor on ''BBC Breakfast'' and as a regular contributor to BBC Radio. E ...

. He has also been recognized by

Startups.co.uk Startups.co.uk is a UK business advice website, estimated at having 4.8 million readers. It was launched in 2000 by David Lester, who formerly founded the video game development company Impressions Games (responsible for the game Caesar) before se ...

. Chambers is a contributor to discussions in the media regarding mental health and wellbeing and has appeared on the BBC, ITV and Channel 5.

Awards

* Top 50 BAME Entrepreneur Under 50 of 2020. * UK Enterprise Awards Organisational Psychologist of the Year 2021. *

Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award The EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards previously Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards is an award sponsored by Ernst & Young in recognition of entrepreneurship. Founded in 1986 in Milwaukee as a single award, as of 2016 twenty-five pro ...

- Emerging Entrepreneur North (2011) * Great British Entrepreneur Award - Service Industries (2021) * In 2022, Chambers was inducted into the

Black Cultural Archives Black Cultural Archives (BCA) is an archive and heritage centre in Brixton, London, devoted to the histories of people of African and Caribbean descent in Britain. Also known as BCA, it was founded in 1981, by educationalist and historian Len Gar ...

, for services to business and health, and was recognised as a

Marie Claire ''Marie Claire'' is a French international monthly magazine first published in France in 1937, followed by the United Kingdom in 1941. Since then various editions are published in many countries and languages. The feature editions focus on wo ...

Future Shaper, alongside musician Harry Styles and sportsman

Tom Daley Tom or TOM may refer to: * Tom (given name), a diminutive of Thomas or Tomás or an independent Aramaic given name (and a list of people with the name) Characters * Tom Anderson, a character in ''Beavis and Butt-Head'' * Tom Beck, a character ...

* Chambers was the first Black British scientist to be made a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences in March 2023

Radio

Chambers life story was the subject of a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

programme presented by

Matthew Syed Matthew Philip Syed (born 2 November 1970) is a British journalist, author, broadcaster and former table tennis player. He competed as an English table tennis international, and was the English number one for many years. He was three times the me ...

broadcast 22 November 2021, named: Sideways 19. Is This What Success Looks Like?

Personal life

Chambers has a son, Myles, and a daughter, Annabel. They live in the

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambers, Lee Living people Alumni of the University of Surrey 1985 births Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University Academics of Lancaster University People from Bolton Positive psychologists 21st-century British psychologists Black British health professionals British company founders 21st-century English businesspeople Black British businesspeople