About

I'm Leo Lee — a strategic HR partner with fifteen years of operating and leadership experience, combining a chief-of-staff's read of the business with hands-on HR operations. I've stood up HR functions from scratch, designed corporate learning systems, led IPO organizational readiness, and more recently built an HR command center and a people-analytics decision system with AI tools.

My career spans learning & development, food service, the performing arts, and Human Resources. One belief has stayed constant: a company's greatest competitive advantage lies not in its products or technology, but in its people. My work is to understand the organization, stay close to operations, and turn information into decisions through AI and data — so that people and the organization keep growing together.

Where it all began: understanding the value of people

After graduating from National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism in 2003, I chose a path that surprised many. Rather than entering the hospitality industry, I pursued my passion for music education after completing military service.

In 2008 I founded Pixel Studio, providing music education, music production, and student-organization consulting. Over the following years I worked with more than ten high schools and universities as a music instructor, mentoring over 500 students annually while organizing more than 50 performances and community events each year.

Teaching taught me far more than instructional skills. It taught me how to understand individuals, recognize their differences, and help each person discover the way they learn and grow best. Even today, I believe Human Resources is, at its core, the largest educational initiative within any organization.

Entrepreneurship: learning to think like a business owner

In 2012 I began my entrepreneurial journey by founding Pixel Band and Pixel Café Nano-Roastery, combining performing arts, specialty coffee, and brand building into meaningful experiences. Within two years the band performed at over a hundred commercial events, including major festivals such as New Taipei Christmasland and the Hualien Summer Festival, while the coffee business advised three cafés and was invited to launch a pop-up store at the 1895 Cultural Park in Nantong, Jiangsu.

Entrepreneurship fundamentally changed the way I think. It forced me to ask: why do customers choose one brand over another? How is a brand truly built? What makes a team perform? How should costs be managed? How do great ideas become sustainable systems?

These experiences later shaped my perspective in HR. Instead of viewing challenges solely through an HR lens, I learned to understand what business leaders genuinely care about.

Management: helping organizations grow

Joining DIT Startup (創夢市集) in 2015 marked my transition into corporate management. From leading the Creative Business Division to running café operations, I was responsible for team building, recruitment, learning and development, product innovation, process improvement, and cross-functional collaboration.

In April 2016, with my son about to be born and no one at home who could care for him, I decided to leave work and spent the next three years as a full-time father — supporting the household with band performances and a coffee side business, and getting the most hands-on run at "education" I've ever had.

Back in the workforce, my career expanded through SMART Property Management, I-Jyseng Bakery, and HOLO+FACE, where my responsibilities evolved from Learning & Development into full-spectrum HR leadership — talent development, performance management, compensation, recruitment, employee relations, leadership development, and organizational design across startups, service industries, retail, and high-growth businesses.

At HOLO+FACE I was entrusted with rebuilding the HR function from the ground up, and later served as Executive Assistant to the CEO, partnering closely with executive leadership on talent strategy, organizational transformation, and enterprise-wide initiatives. That experience reinforced one realization: the true value of HR isn't managing policies — it's building organizations that keep growing long after the policies are written.

AI won't replace HR — it will redefine it

Today, at CMoney, I focus on HR AI transformation and workflow automation. I'm actively exploring large language models (LLMs), AI agents, the Model Context Protocol (MCP), workflow automation, and emerging AI tools to rethink how Human Resources should evolve in the AI era.

I believe the future HR professional will be far more than a policy administrator. Instead, HR leaders will increasingly serve as:

• Strategic business partners
• People-analytics specialists
• AI product managers for internal operations
• Organizational change leaders

AI can dramatically improve efficiency, but people will always remain the ultimate source of competitive advantage. My aim is to let AI handle repetitive tasks so HR professionals can invest more time where they create the greatest value: developing people, strengthening leadership, designing organizations, and cultivating culture.

My leadership philosophy

Across my career I've worked in education, entrepreneurship, hospitality, performing arts, brand management, Human Resources, executive leadership, and AI transformation. Although these experiences may look diverse, they've all been building toward the same purpose: understanding people, understanding organizations, and understanding business.

To me, HR isn't simply about managing people — it's about enabling business success through people. Likewise, education isn't merely about transferring knowledge — it's about helping individuals become the best version of themselves.

Looking ahead, I hope to keep combining the mindset of an educator, the perspective of a business operator, and the vision of a transformation leader — helping organizations become more resilient, innovative, and people-centered, and building the next generation of HR management through AI and data.

Every company is, in many ways, the last school its employees will ever attend. An organization achieves sustainable success not because it hires the very best people, but because it builds a culture that continuously develops, empowers, and inspires them. That is the mission I hope to dedicate my career and my life to.