Her Story
About Grace
Grace Lee is a retired marketing executive with more than 30 years of experience in the spirits and casino industry. Over the course of her career, she rose to the role of Director of Asian and Casino Marketing, building deep expertise in ultra-premium cognac marketing, Asian cultural marketing, and casino marketing programs tailored to a luxury clientele. She worked across major spirits organizations, including Rémy Cointreau USA, Pernod Ricard, Allied Domecq, and Hiram Walker & Sons, where she managed relationship marketing, oversaw teams of cultural brand ambassadors, and partnered with agencies to design and execute brand strategies that connected global positioning with cultural relevance in the U.S. market.
Grace built her foundation in sales and marketing operations through an associate's degree earned in Hong Kong, later supplementing her expertise with adult education coursework at New York University focused on specialized sales, merchandising, and marketing operations. Throughout her career, she credits accountability as the guiding principle behind her success, along with a commitment to compassion and honesty in every professional relationship. She remains especially proud of her ability to help colleagues and mentees think beyond their immediate circumstances, encouraging them to move past setbacks and pursue bigger opportunities.
Since retiring, Grace has remained closely engaged with the industry she spent decades building, regularly connecting with former colleagues around the world to understand how the business continues to evolve. She stays physically active through tennis and dedicates time to causes she cares about, including donations to Women for Success and local animal welfare organizations. Grace continues to value the relationships she built throughout her career and takes pride in offering guidance to those still navigating the industry today.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Grace
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would attribute my success to accountability. When I make a commitment to someone, I make sure I follow through on it, because at the end of the day, my actions affect other people.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Early in my career, I worked on the agency side of the business. When the company I supported decided to bring that work in-house, the decision-maker there offered me a position within the corporation itself, which marked the true beginning of my career. He told me that he appreciated how I did things for a specific, thoughtful reason, and that reason was never about my own gain. He also told me I didn't have a dishonest bone in my body. The sincerity behind those words has stayed with me ever since.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell them to walk in with confidence, because when you go into any interview or opportunity, remember that you are evaluating them just as much as they are evaluating you. If you walk in timid or afraid you won't get the job, chances are you won't. That said, confidence should never tip into arrogance or ignorance. I'd also encourage them to think bigger than the brand, the product, or the specific account in front of them. Ultimately, it comes down to accountability: following through on what you promise, because it always affects someone else.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Even in retirement, I stay connected to former colleagues and others still active in the industry because I'm genuinely curious about how much the business has changed. The dynamics of the field I worked in have shifted tremendously, and I like understanding what's driving those changes and why they're happening. Staying in touch with people currently in the industry, as well as other retirees, keeps me engaged with where things are heading.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Compassion and honesty matter most to me. Beyond that, I believe the most valuable thing I can do is help someone who is searching for more in a difficult period of their life and help bring them out of that uncomfortable place. So many people get stuck in a rut they can't seem to escape, and I try to help redirect their thinking so they don't get so fixated on one place that it becomes hard to move past. If I can help someone move forward, I consider that a real achievement, even though I'm no psychiatrist.
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