James Bainbridge Lee, Jr.*

Jimmy Lee was born in New York City in 1952 and grew up in New Canaan, Connecticut. His family owned the Lee Hat Company, the Danbury News-Times, and other Danbury businesses. When men's hats fell out of fashion, the hat company suffered hard times and Lee's father sold it to Stetson, a hat manufacturer. When Lee was 11, his father died.

Soon after, Lee was sent away to Canterbury School, a boys' boarding school, and he never lived at home for any extended period of time again. His mother remarried, but Lee's new stepfather died of cancer when Lee was 17. After Canterbury, Lee went to Williams College where he graduated with a degree in economics and art history in 1975.

In the spring of his senior year at Williams, Lee joined Chemical Bank's management training program. That was the beginning of a 29-year career at the bank and its successor companies. In 1982, he started and built the bank's loan syndications unit, which became the largest in the world. He eventually went on to build the bank's high-yield bond business, acquisition finance, and mergers and acquisitions practice. He eventually ran Chemical Bank and then Chase Manhattan's multibillion-dollar investment bank. During this period, those businesses won multiple awards. Lee was named vice chairman of Chase Manhattan Bank in 1994.

Lee was noted for advising and financing many of the largest and most historic deals in the United States. They encompass a variety of transactions, including rescue financings such as the three Chrysler restructurings, and the U.S. government acquisition of American International Group. He helped develop leveraged finance markets and redesigned the syndicated loan market.

Asked to define success, Lee said, "In the traditional sense, success is having a huge dream and achieving it. But I think it's also having a close and loving family. It's having friends; it's helping people who need help. To me, success has more to do with the heart than the pocketbook." Lee advised youth to "set your goals really high, be yourself, and outwork everyone around you. If you want it badly enough in your heart, you can achieve any dream you can dream."