LSSO

Award History

About Thomas H. Lee

Tom Lee held strong beliefs about excellence, values and integrity. These beliefs drove his business and personal lives. Tom was convinced that American industry would be more competitive if its leaders were able to apply the operational strength of total quality management in combination with the power of robust strategic planning. To that end, Tom began working with Ray Stata (Chairman, Analog Devices, Inc.) and other Boston area CEOs to do something about the state of management of U.S. companies. He introduced Shoji Shiba, an expert in Total Quality Management, and Russell Ackoff, an expert in strategic planning, to Ray and the other CEOs. They started the Center For Quality of Management (“CQM”).

At the age of 75, Tom retired from the position of CQM president, but remained as a board member and treasurer.

Over the course of his life, Tom Lee went from his home country of China to a new home in the U.S. Through technical accomplishment (including world class engineering breakthroughs) and because of his practicality and ability to work with others, Tom rose to a high position in General Electric. He converted himself from a technology expert to a management expert, led major and important laboratories at GE, MIT and HASA in Vienna, founded the CQM, had an extraordinary number of close friends throughout the world, and people who credited him with influencing their lives.

At the time of his death, Tom Lee held thirty U.S. patents, had written over 100 technical papers, and was the author or co-author of four books and editor of two others. In addition to his honors from the National Academy of Engineering and his positions with the Power Engineering Society, Tom received the Power Life Award in 1980, was a fellow of the IEEE, a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences, a fellow of the AAAS, recipient of RPI’s Davis Medal for outstanding engineering accomplishments, and was awarded in 1990 the National Association for Chinese-Americans Outstanding Achievement Award.

Tom Lee was always driven by excellence. The Legal Sales and Service Organization is proud to honor him by naming the first award of its kind: The Thomas H. Lee Award for Excellence in Law.