Full Name
James Rhee
Job Title
Teacher, Investor/CEO, National Bestselling Author
Speaker Bio
James Rhee is a high school teacher who has become a voice of global leadership and change. James imagines, designs, and then funds systems that create value by bridging peoples, disciplines, and ideas. Above all, he gives us permission to be human. His TED Talk and Dare to Lead interview with Brené Brown have captured the imagination of millions.
His national and global bestselling book, red helicopter - a parable for our times (now also available in Korean and Portuguese, with the Spanish translation coming later this year), which chronicles the inspiration and operating system behind his transformational and unlikely seven-year tenure as Owner, Chairman and CEO of Ashley Stewart, made its April 2024 debut as the #1 non-fiction book across all channels and media per USA Today.
Through red helicopter, a platform of the same name, James is teaching and investing behind leaders committed to a better way. In addition to working with future leaning CEOs and organizations, he teaches students at MIT Sloan School of Management and Duke Law School as Senior Lecturer, and also at Howard University, where he holds an unprecedented appointment as the Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Entrepreneurship. His family office, FirePine Group, leverages his past experience managing billions of dollars of private equity capital, funding stage-agnostic innovation, broadly defined. He is working on multiple related music, film and education projects.
James is a former honoree of the EY Entrepreneurship 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. He is a Frederick Douglass honoree of the New York Urban League, the recipient of both the Council of Korean Americans and Korean American Story Trailblazer Award, and an honoree of One To World’s Fulbright Award, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, and Girls Write Now. He was elected to be a member of the inaugural Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur class by Ashoka, the global pioneer in social entrepreneurship. He has served as director of many boards, including JP Morgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways and Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater.
James lives outside Boston, Massachusetts with his family. He is a Harvard College and Law School graduate. where he was an editor of Harvard Law Review.
His national and global bestselling book, red helicopter - a parable for our times (now also available in Korean and Portuguese, with the Spanish translation coming later this year), which chronicles the inspiration and operating system behind his transformational and unlikely seven-year tenure as Owner, Chairman and CEO of Ashley Stewart, made its April 2024 debut as the #1 non-fiction book across all channels and media per USA Today.
Through red helicopter, a platform of the same name, James is teaching and investing behind leaders committed to a better way. In addition to working with future leaning CEOs and organizations, he teaches students at MIT Sloan School of Management and Duke Law School as Senior Lecturer, and also at Howard University, where he holds an unprecedented appointment as the Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Entrepreneurship. His family office, FirePine Group, leverages his past experience managing billions of dollars of private equity capital, funding stage-agnostic innovation, broadly defined. He is working on multiple related music, film and education projects.
James is a former honoree of the EY Entrepreneurship 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. He is a Frederick Douglass honoree of the New York Urban League, the recipient of both the Council of Korean Americans and Korean American Story Trailblazer Award, and an honoree of One To World’s Fulbright Award, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, and Girls Write Now. He was elected to be a member of the inaugural Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur class by Ashoka, the global pioneer in social entrepreneurship. He has served as director of many boards, including JP Morgan Chase’s Advancing Black Pathways and Harvard University’s American Repertory Theater.
James lives outside Boston, Massachusetts with his family. He is a Harvard College and Law School graduate. where he was an editor of Harvard Law Review.
Speaking At
