Mr. Kenneth Lee is a successful entrepreneur in the aerospace, specialty metal & aircraft parts manufacturing industry. Originally born and raised in Seoul, South Korea, Mr. Lee’s family moved to Los Angeles, California in 1989, where he became an American Citizen. Mr. Lee obtained his MBA at the University of Southern California (USC) and initially worked in a variety of purchasing and procurement management positions for companies such as Hyundai Motors USA and Bralco Metals. In 1995, Mr. Lee started his own business business in aerospace raw materials distribution, California Metal, based in Los Angeles California, which has grown to serve virtually all of the largest aerospace industry OEM’s and top-tier suppliers, and won the prestigious Boeing Performance Excellence Award four sequential years in a row. In April 2013, Mr. Lee founded Kencoa Aerospace Corporation in Sacheon-City South Korea from scratch – with no office, no building, no contracts, and 5 employees working out of a mobile container office. In less than 3 years, Mr. Lee grew Kencoa Aerospace Corporation to over 200 employees, achieving success as the first SME (small and medium enterprise) to manufacture a complete flight-worthy aircraft in Korea, the KT-100 Air Force Trainer. Kencoa would continue to manufacture major assemblies such as the complete Boeing 777 Leading Edge Wing, which is drop shipped directly to the OEM’s assembly factory.
In 2016 Mr. Lee acquired Heart of Georgia Metal Crafters LLC (HGMC) located on a regional airport industrial park in Eastman Georgia, a tier-1 supplier of precision machined components and sheetmetal fabrications to Boeing, Lockheed, Gulfstream, GKN, and other top commercial and military aerospace customers. In the first year of acquisition and re-branding the company as Kencoa Aerospace, Mr. Lee significantly expanded equipment and facilities, launched new larger diameter super-alloy jet engine manufacturing capabilities, and was bestowed the Elite Supplier Performance Award fromLockheed Martin as part of the top 2% of their supply global base.
Mr. Lee graduated with High Honors from Seoul National University with a Bachelor of Business Administration. He received a Masters of Business Administration (MBA, IT, Entrepreneurship) from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business.
