Isaac Lee

Career

When Lee was 23, he reported that Colombia's then president Ernesto Samper had received funding from the Cali Cartel. Lee was fired immediately afterward.

At the age of 25, Lee was appointed editor of Cromos. At 26, he was named editor-in-chief of the Colombian magazine Semana. During his tenure at Semana, the magazine published a cover story which forced two Colombian cabinet ministers to resign a couple of days later.

PODER Magazine

Lee served as founding partner and editor in chief of PODER Magazine, a pan-regional magazine for the business elite with special editions for the US Hispanic market, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela and Peru with a total circulation of over half a million copies. The magazine was later sold to Televisa and other investors.

Univision

On December 9, 2010 Univision announced the appointment of Lee as President of News.

Shortly after joining Univision, Lee announced he was working on the launch of a 24-hour cable news channel in English; the new channel was officially announced in May 2012 as a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and Univision. In February 2013, both networks announced the new channel would be called Fusion.

Two new departments within news were created in 2011: an Investigative Unit led by Gerardo Reyes and a Documentary Unit led by Juan Rendon. The Documentary Unit later became StoryHouse a content development and production venture producing original content for UCI’s portfolio of owned networks as well as third party networks and platforms.

Under Lee's tenure, Univision News has attained several recognitions for journalistic excellence such as the 2012 Peabody and IRE Awards for its “Fast and Furious” investigation, three Emmy's for outstanding investigative reporting, outstanding newsmagazine and outstanding breaking news coverage and two Gracie awards, and the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism.

In February 2015, as part of a reorganization of Univision's digital operation, Lee's role was expanded to lead Digital for all of Univision as President of Digital. Shortly after, under Lee's leadership, Univision announced the acquisition of African-American news site The Root.

In November 2015 Lee was named to the newly created position of chief news and digital officer, with additional responsibilities over multicultural and music and maintaining oversight of the news and digital divisions.

Organizations

In April 2014, the Associated Press announced it had named Lee to its Board of Directors

Lee is also a member of the IAPA, the NAHJ, the Foro Iberoamérica Presided by Ricardo Lagos and Carlos Fuentes and serves on the journalism advisory board of ProPublica. and on the International Advisory Board of the Committee to protect journalists.

In February 2013, Lee was appointed to the board of advisors of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics, and in June he joined the board of the International Center for Journalists.

In May 2015, Legendary Pictures announced it had named Isaac Lee to its board of Directors.

Other projects

In 2010 he co-produced his first documentary "Colombia Hostage Rescue" for National Geographic TV which aired in 13 countries. He also co-produced with Televisión Española an International Emmy Award nominated TV mini-series about Operación Jaque. He was a producer of a featured film, "Paraiso Travel", an immigration story based on a novel of acclaimed writer Jorge Franco.

Personal life

He is openly gay.