2020 Annual Gala Honoree: Jaime Lee

Urban Visionary

Chief Executive Officer, Jamison Realty, Inc.

Jaime Lee is the Chief Executive Officer of Jamison Realty, Inc., the leasing and brokerage arm of the Jamison group of companies, which controls approximately 18 million square feet of commercial and residential properties throughout Southern California.  The privately-held, family-run business has been one of the largest office landlords in the City of Los Angeles for the past twenty-five years. Since 2014, it has quickly become the most active multifamily developer in Los Angeles as well, bringing to market over 2,000 units with an additional 5,000 units under development.

Earning both BA and JD degrees from the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles native currently serves on the USC Board of Trustees. She is also a member of the Board of Councilors for the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, a Chairman member of the USC Associates and lectures regularly at the USC Gould School of Law, the USC Sol Price School of Public Policy, and the USC Marshall School of Business.  She previously served as the 2017-18 President of the USC Alumni Association Board of Governors and the 2015-17 President of the USC Asian Pacific Alumni Association Board of Directors. She takes time to be involved with her high school alma mater, where she is a founding board member of Harvard-Westlake’s Korean American Alumni Network as well as its inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council.

Jaime is also active in a number of civic, philanthropic, and industry organizations at the city, state, and community levels.  Appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, she was elected President of the Board of Harbor Commissioners for the Port of Los Angeles in April 2018, the largest container port by trade volume in the western hemisphere.  She previously served the City of Los Angeles for four years as President of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System Board of Administration, which oversees the City’s $17 billion employee pension fund, and on the boards for the Industrial Development Authority and the Quality and Productivity Commission.  She currently serves the State of California on the California Film Commission and previously served for seven years as a commissioner on the Speech Language Pathology, Audiology & Hearing Aid Dispensers Board.  Jaime is active in the community as a board member of the Los Angeles Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games 2028, the Los Angeles World Affairs Council & Town Hall, and the Anderson Munger Family YMCA.

Recognized for her professional and civic contributions, Jaime was named one of the 500 most influential people in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal in 2018 and 2019. 

She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children.

Mayor Eric Garcetti in a fireside chat with Jaime Lee