Short Version

Richard (“Dick”) K. Lee is president and CEO of Value Innovations, Inc (Vi). Dick is a past member of the BOD and three time past chairman of the emeriti committee of the Industrial Research Institute.

Dick has been the VP and General Manager of two divisions of Fortune 500 companies [Gould Inc. and McGraw Edison], the VP R&D at Pharmaseal, the manufacturing arm of American Hospital Supply, and the VP Strategic Business Operations at Johns Manville.

Dick received his Ph. D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of London in 1968. Dick is a UK subject, a Permanent Resident of the USA and lives with his wife Lin in Castle Rock, CO.

+1-720-291-0758 | dick_lee@valueinnovations.net; LinkedIn, Dick Lee Ph.D.; Twitter, ViRKL

Long Version

Dick Lee is Chairman, President and Founder of Value Innovations, Inc. (VI). VI was incorporated as a Chapter C Corporation in Colorado in August, 1999. For more information on VI, go to: https://valueinnovations.com/. VI helps its customers significantly improve the contribution of new products, services and delivery to their company’s value by providing exceptional value to the most important customer in the value chain. He is a black belt in Value Innovation.

VI is expert in management processes and tools that impact a company’s ability to successfully commercialize technology, new products, and services. VI develops and markets browser-based software to manage these processes. VI partners with the companies in Europe, SE Asia and North America. The list includes: Broadleaf Product Design, Colorado Consulting Partners, EDGE – Serbia, Growth Navigators (India), George Nagle Publishing, HLW Associates, Hinton Sheerline, Ltd. (UK), Innovaro, Innovation Insights LLC, InnovaSpec LLC, Innovation Strategy Group, InnTech LLC, Intellectual Assets, Inc., Kompasstrategy, Omni Group, Inc., Phoreon (UK and Belgium), Say Consulting, Sustainnovation Inc., Simient Pty. Ltd (Australia), SmartOrg, and The Adept Group.

Dick has managed, and had full P&L responsibility for, operating units of Fortune 500 Companies and led R&D organizations. He served as Vice President, Strategic Business Operations, Johns Manville Corporation [1988-1992]; Vice President R&D for Pharmaseal, a division of American Hospital Supply and subsequently Baxter Healthcare Corporation [1985-1988]; Vice President, Onan Corporation and General Manager, Elgar Corporation (McGraw Edison Corporation) [1982-1985]; Vice President and General Manager, the Portable Battery Division of Gould Inc. [1977-1982]; and Manager, Vehicle Emission Control R&D, UOP Inc. [1972-1977].

Dick has served as the Vice President and General Manager of operating divisions of two Fortune 500 companies. The primary goals for his first general management assignment at Gould Inc. were to improve the profitability of, and sell, the division. He led the division to become the second best within Gould for gross margin and operating income improvement and the unit was successfully sold to SAFT America.

At McGraw Edison the directive was to reverse the rapid decline in orders and make the unit profitable. In the second year, the unit posted a record level for orders and the business was profitable.

At Pharmaseal, a $1 billion operating unit of American Hospital Supply generating 18% PAT, Lee headed the R&D group. For three successive years, gross margins from new products and process improvements per R&D employee was increased by over 100% per year.

Since 1992, Lee has led consulting projects for more than one hundred clients in North America, Europe and SE Asia, including: ADM, Alcan, Albany International, American Vanguard, Arkema, Ashland Chemical, Associated Octel, AstenJohnson, Beaulieu International Group, Bobcat, Boeing Commercial Aircraft, Brady Corporation, BWA Water Additives, Caterpillar Trimble Control Technologies, Cargill, Caterpillar, Champion Technologies, Chevron, Ciba Corning Diagnostics, Ciba Geigy, ECC Inc., Exxon Research and Engineering, Gates Corporation, Genencor, Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, Great Lakes Chemical Corporation, Honeywell, Ingersoll-Rand, Johns Manville, Johnson Controls, KBR (an operating unit of Halliburton), Kennametal, Merck KGaA, Millipore, Mobil Oil Corporation, Nanophase, Novamin (acquired by gsk in 2009), Panasonic, PG&E, Pharma Diagnostics (now Phoreon), Polycore Optical Pte Ltd., Procter and Gamble, Raychem, SAIC, Sherwin Williams, Spectranetics, Thermo King, Trimble, Wawanesa and Wenger.

The primary areas of focus for the consulting projects have been: strategic business, technology and innovation planning; value innovation; development of growth strategies; bench marking; contextual interviewing; technology outsourcing; facilitation of steering teams; the development of custom Stage-Gate project management systems; portfolio management; Stage-Gate project management training; team building; key expert panels; project leader training/mentoring; and “on the job” coaching.

Dick was an Adjunct Professor teaching in the Masters of Technology Management program at University College, University of Denver from 1992-1995. He lectured on two subjects: “Public Policy and Regulatory Requirements in Technology Management” and “Strategies and Systems in R&D”.

Dick was Chairman of the Organizing Committee for Summit 91, for which he authored a widely distributed 30-minute videotape entitled; U.S. Competitiveness: – a Crisis! – and then continued as a member of the Summit 92 organizing committee. Focused on improving U.S. competitiveness, Summit 91 brought together leaders from industry, academia (Lester Thurow, MIT; George Cabot Lodge and Bruce Scott, Harvard Business School), government (then HUD Secretary, Jack Kemp), and other key players (Clyde Prestowitz, President of the Economic Strategy Institute, and Kent Hughes, President of the Council on Competitiveness).

Dick was the youngest Emeritus Member (49, 1992) and a past Member of the Board of Directors, Industrial Research Institute (IRI) [1990-1992]. The 200 IRI member companies spend 70% of the R&D dollars invested by U.S. industry (approximately $100 billion). He has served three times as Chairman of the IRI Emeriti Committee. Dick was a member of EIRMA’s Working Group 61, “Organizing Stage-Gate to Deliver Value”. Dick co-chaired the RoR Subcommittee, “Value Creation through Value Innovation” with Tom Dillon of SAIC from 1999-2002. This subcommittee, represented by over forty IRI member companies, developed the first value innovation process and the Value IQ Tool (now called VIPAT). He is cited in Who’s Who in America (1992 – present) and Who’s Who Worldwide, and is a winner of an IR-100 Award (Zinc/Air Hearing Aid Button Cells).

Dick served as Vice Chairman of the Rocky Mountain World Trade Center; member of its Board of Directors and Executive Committee; Chairman of the Trade & Business Policy Committee, and led a group of volunteers that developed “An Export Growth Goal Plan for the State of Colorado”.

He is co-author of the book, Value Innovation Works, published in 2012. He has published two eLearning Courses on Udemy (www.udemy.com): “Introducing the Value Innovation Process®” and “Value Innovation Process® Success Stories.”

Dick was networked to 4,600 business professionals on LinkedIn on November 23, 2016 (Dick Lee PH.D.). Value Innovations has a group on LinkedIn with 1,860 members. He is an active member of Twitter (@ViRKL), posting from 3 to 5 Tweets/day and receives 1,400 Impressions/day. He blogs through the Value Innovations’ website and has posted 90 blogs since November, 2014.

Dick has a B.Sc. (Upper 2nd Class) degree from the University of London (1964) and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship (1964-1965 – UK to the USA), he has an MS from Northwestern University (1965), a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of London (1968), and completed the Mini MBA program at the College of St. Thomas (1980).

Dick is a UK subject and a Permanent Resident of the US. He applied for US Citizenship in June, 2016 and meets with US Immigration Officials on December 8, 2016.

He has traveled frequently to Europe and The Far East. A resident of Castle Pines, Dick enjoys golf and skiing with his wife Lin. Their daughters, Sonja and Alyssa, are married with two sons, and live in the greater Denver Metro Area.

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