Isaac Lee - Biography

 

Isaac Lee, born in Colombia, has been leading news teams for over 13 years and is currently the President of News for Univision having editorial and strategical oversight of programming and production across the Univision Networks, Univision Local Media and Univision Interactive Media. Prior to this, Lee was the Editor-in-Chief of Page One Media, a company he founded in 2005 that chronicles the ascent of US Hispanics.

Before moving to the US from Colombia to report on the digital revolution in the region, Lee became, at the age of 26, the youngest editor in chief in the history of Revista Semana, Colombia's most prestigious magazine. At Semana he expanded the company's portfolio of publications launching new titles, which included Revista Soho, a men's lifestyle publication that quickly became a phenomenal success for the publishing house. He also introduced the company to the digital era by creating online properties for Semana and it’s publications. Later he leveraged the content of Semana.com and it's sister publications to create, together with Esteban Piedrahita, the portal LaCiudad.com which was poised to be among the most visited websites in the country. The project came to the attention of Spain's Telefonica and was later sold to its subsidiary Terra Networks in a very lucrative deal for the company. Before Semana, Lee had been appointed editor of Cromos - the region's oldest magazine, ranked Colombia’s second in circulation among weeklies - at the young age of 25; the NY Times, in an August 1996 story, refferred to him as a "young maverick".

He began his journalistic career as a staff reporter for Cambio16 magazine while completing his studies at “Universidad de los Andes” postgraduate school of journalism. After Cambio16 he worked at TV newscasts, which included a stint at QAP Noticias and later at CMI.

Born in a family of Jewish immigrants, Lee came to Miami from his native Colombia in 2000. In 2005, after founding Page One Media, Lee bought PODER and LOFT magazines (from defunct Zoom Media Group) and re-launched PODER in a joint venture with Editorial Televisa, which later acquired the magazine. Televisa reached an agreement with Page One, to keep the company providing the editorial content for the magazines.

Under Lee, PODER established a partnership with The Economist to carry their content, and organized forums in partnership with Georgetown and Columbia Universities, the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, the City of Miami, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) among others.

PODER-ABC* Forum participants have included, 5 Nobel Prize awardees, Colombian ex-presidents Cesar Gaviria, Alvaro Uribe Velez and current President Juan Manuel Santos; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez, former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak, former Editor-in-Chief of the Economist Bill Emmott, and David Rubenstein founder of Carlyle Group among many others. The magazine also produces the annual PODER Business Awards to celebrate excellence in the region.

During the time Lee was at the helm, LOFT won the Folio award for best lifestyle magazine, and an award for best design from the Florida Publishing association. PODER won the Freedom of Press award from Inter American Press Association (IAPA) for a cover story written by Jesus Blancornelas about the Tijuana Cartel.

He produced the documentary Hostage Rescue for NatGeo TV, about the rescue of hostages in Colombia, which was seen in 143 countries and in 35 languages and an award winning feature film. He was also Executive Producer of a short documentary about reconciliation by Jesse Dylan and is now co-producing a documentary about deforestation in the Amazon.

He has written OpEd pieces for El Nuevo Herald in Miami, El Diario La Prensa in New York, El Universal in Caracas, Portafolio in Colombia and Slate.

He has attended courses in publishing, negotiation and conflict resolution from Stanford and Harvard universities.

Isaac Lee is a member of Foro Iberoamerica (Chaired by former President of Chile Ricardo Lagos and Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes), the Georgetown Leadership Seminar, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the IAPA. He serves on the board of the ABC* Foundation and Youthline Foundation.