Chong Mong Lee

Background

Lee was born near Seoul in 1928 to father who traded Chinese herbal medicine.

Career

He founded in 1982. He was the youngest of five children. Leaving school at 12 because the fees were unaffordable, Lee spent his "teenage years repairing fishing boats, mixing and slicing Chinese herbs and cleaning a pawnshop." Despite working, he was able to study and sit the national college entrance exam, earning a place in university. He emigrated to the United States in 1970 and ran an export business, selling golf balls to Japan.

He founded in 1982 but initially was not successful.

Lee would shift the focus of his company to multimedia. Diamond was ranked the 17th fastest growing private company in the United States in 1993 and had a public offering in 1995.

Lee contributed $15 million in 1997 to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.

Achievements

• He graduated and won a Korean government sponsored scholarship to study for a Master"s in library science at Vanderbilt University. 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.