Christine Wei-li Lee
Senior Advisor
As a senior advisor specializing in Asia, Christine We-li Lee brings 15 years of experience in media relations, general and ethnic marketing/advertising, public affairs, corporate strategic communications, political campaigns and community outreach to the williamsworks team.
In 2002, California Gov. Gray Davis appointed her as a Commissioner on the California State World Trade Commission. Christine served as Senior Advisor on Asian Pacific American affairs to Gov. Davis's re-election campaign in 2001-2002. She designed, supervised and implemented a proactive APA community-outreach program and media campaign; including California's first-ever statewide gubernatorial multilingual print and television ad campaign in Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese. The Governor won more than 60 percent of the Asian American vote in his successful campaign for a second term.
Prior to becoming an independent communications consultant, she was Director of Marketing Communications - Asia/Pacific for Korn/Ferry International, the leading global executive-search firm with more than 70 offices worldwide. Based in Los Angeles and traveling frequently to Asia, she was responsible for all aspects of strategic communications involving clients, media and candidates with the firm's 14 offices in 10 Asia/Pacific countries, including the People's Republic of China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and India. Before joining Korn/Ferry, Christine worked as a Media Relations Manager with Stoorza, Ziegaus & Metzger, a major women-owned PR/PA firm in California and as a Public Relations Manager with the Los Angeles office of Asatsu/BBDO, a major Japanese/American advertising joint venture, and then the second-largest Asian agency in the U.S.
Christine coordinated international press for the 1996 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and was Deputy Press Secretary for the 1995 California Democratic State Convention. She also was Deputy Press Secretary in the 1993 mayoral campaign of former Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Woo. As a freelance writer, Lee's articles have appeared in such publications as the Los Angeles Business Journal and Glendale News-Press. A native of Taiwan, Christine is fluent in both written and spoken Mandarin Chinese. She has extensive experience in international business issues and with the Asian Pacific American community.
Christine holds a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York City, where she received the prestigious di Cagno Hagen Award for best investigative story of the year on environmental justice. She also graduated magna cum laude from the University of California at Los Angeles, earning a bachelor's degree in communication studies and being elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
She lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband, Garry South, and their 2-year-old son, James Ru-Shiao Lee-South.