Nationality Singaporean Role Businessman Parents Lee Kong Chian | Occupation Businessman Grandparents Lee Kuo Chuan Name Lee Tee | |
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Born 16 April 1923 (age 100) ( 1923-04-16 ) Singapore Education Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania Organization Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation, Lee Foundation | ||
Dr. Lee Seng Tee (Chinese: 李成智; pinyin: Lǐ Chéngzhì; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Lí Sîng-tì; 16 April 1923 – present), , a Singaporean businessman and philanthropist.
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Born in Singapore in 1923, Lee is the second son of Lee Kong Chian and a maternal grandson of Tan Kah Kee. He is a Director of the family's Lee Group of Companies, a Singapore-based conglomerate of firms in industries that include pineapple and investments, Lee is among the 40 richest people in Singapore primarily due to his stake in family businesses.
Philanthropy
As a director of the Lee Foundation, Lee also supports education, particularly higher education, around the world through personal donations towards building libraries and reading rooms, as well as supporting the acquisition of published resources for some of the most famous libraries in the world, which include the Needham Research Institute at the University of Cambridge and the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford. He was named an honorary fellow of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals for his philanthropic support of libraries worldwide.
In China, Lee's support for the Chinese Chess Association has included the Lee Seng Tee Library at the Chess Academy in Beijing, the ST Lee Beijing International Open, and the Lee Seng Tee Cup (李成智杯). Other projects include the Lee Seng Tee Public Library (李成智公众图书馆) in Nan'an City, Fujian, where his father was born.
Lee also funds projects and lecture series at universities, including Cambridge and Oxford in the United Kingdom, Columbia University, Harvard University, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Stanford University and the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, in the United States, the University of Sydney in Australia, the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the National University of Singapore (NUS). The S.T. Lee Lectures provide a platform for scholars and policy-makers to address critical international issues.
Recognition
Lee is an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy (1998) and Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2001), as well as an Honorary Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge, and Oriel College, Oxford. Lee is a Member of the Guild of Cambridge Benefactors.
Lee graduated from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor's degree in economics in 1950. Lee has also received honorary degrees from the Asian Institute of Technology (1998) in Thailand, Victoria University (2006) and Washington University in St. Louis (2008).
In October 2009, he was conferred the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the Singapore President and NUS Chancellor S. R. Nathan.
Lee has a variety of bamboo, the Drepanostachyum falcatum var. sengteeanum, named after him.