James Rhee
Honoree
James Rhee, a Girls Write Now 2024 honoree, is a high school teacher, Harvard Law graduate, and private equity investor who became the unexpected Chairman and CEO of Ashley Stewart, where his transformative partnership with a primarily Black female employee and customer base shocked the business community and inspired the world. His TED Talk and Dare to Lead interview with Brené Brown have captured the imagination of millions. His leadership philosophy and operating system bridge peoples, industries, and ideas, and are the foundation of red helicopter, his media-education platform, and his teaching at Howard University as the John H. Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management, and Duke Law School. A charter member of the Advisory Council of JP Morgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways and the Governing Committee of the CEO Action for Racial Equity, James’s civic contributions have been recognized by multiple communities and groups: he was a Frederick Douglass honoree of the New York Urban League, the recipient of the Council of Korean Americans’ Trailblazer Award, and an honoree of One To World’s Fulbright Award. Global pioneer in social entrepreneurship Ashoka elected him as a member of its Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur Network. He also currently serves on the Board of Directors of Coalition for Asian American Children and Families and is a former director of Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater. James’s processes and ideas have been tested and proven in the private sector for over 25 years. After helping manage billions of dollars of private equity in Boston, James started a family-office investment platform, FirePine Group, which has stewarded the capital of some of the world’s most sophisticated investors and continues to provide capital to entrepreneurs creating true systemic value. He serves on the Board of Directors of Xponance, a more than $17-billion asset management and investment firm focused on emerging manager strategies. And he is a former honoree of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year program, as well as a former board member of the National Retail Federation, whose foundation honored him with its Power Player Award for those leaders most impacting the future of retail. Learn about his national bestselling book red helicopter―a parable for our times: lead change with kindness (plus a little math), (HarperOne; April 9, 2024) at redhelicopter.com. He lives outside of Boston, Massachusetts.