William “Bill” Lee is President and CEO of The Lee Company. Prior to assuming his present position, he served the company as CFO and led one of the company production units. Before joining the family business, Bill spent ten years in commercial lending and five years consulting as a part-time CFO for numerous companies. Throughout his career Bill has been a passionate advocate for family owned, entrepreneurial companies. Bill is the Lee family’s most ardent advocate for moving toward a “Family Enterprise” model of structure and governance. The Lee Company is a family owned manufacturer of miniature hydraulic components for mission critical applications. The company was founded in 1948 and now has over 1,000 employees. Throughout the aerospace industry, Lee hydraulic inserts set the standard for quality, performance and reliability. The business has diversified and is now roughly 40% aerospace, 20% medical, 15% automotive, and the balance a mix of oil tool, Formula 1, industrial and numerous other niche markets. All manufacturing is done in Connecticut, where the company has over 1,200,000 sq. ft. of buildings and most of the employees reside. The company has multiple domestic sales offices, five wholly owned European sales subsidiaries and services the Pacific Rim countries though representatives and distributors.