Chong Moon Lee
Chong Mong Lee (born 1928) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded Diamond Multimedia in 1982.
Early life
Lee was born near Seoul in 1928 to a father who traded Chinese herbal medicine.[1] He was the youngest of five children.[2] 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."[2] Despite working, he was able to study and sit for the national college entrance exam, earning a place in university. He graduated and won a Korean government sponsored scholarship to study for a Master's in library science at Vanderbilt University.[2]
After his studies in the States, Lee took over the pharmacy shop his brothers had built after his older brother died of a heart attack.[1]
Diamond Multimedia
He emigrated to the US in 1970 and ran an export business, selling golf balls to Japan.[1] He founded Diamond Multimedia in 1982 but initially was not successful. The company lost millions and Lee suffered personal setbacks including losing a home and marriage, leading him to contemplate suicide while pointing a gun to his head.[1]
Lee would shift the focus of his company to multimedia. 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.[1] Diamond was ranked the 17th fastest growing private company in the US in 1993 and had a public offering in 1995.[1]
Philanthropy
Lee contributed $15 million in 1997 to the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.[1]