Van Lee Honored For Health, Philanthropy Achievement

Van Lee honored for his impact leading Booz Allen’s public health sector and commitment to numerous philanthropic and civic organizations.

On April 2, 2009, Booz Allen Hamilton senior vice president Reggie Van Lee was one of 25 honorees receiving the Washington Business Journal Minority Business Leader Awards at an event held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Washington, D.C.

The award celebrates the region’s diversity by honoring a few of its most inspiring leaders, who were chosen from more than 100 nominations by the newspaper’s editorial department and a panel of local community judges. Criteria for selection were based on individual accomplishments, challenges, and “stories,” according to the Washington Business Journal.

Outstanding leadership is especially critical in today’s dynamic business culture. “In these difficult times, leadership is all about courage—the courage to deal with very complex challenges in uncharted territories, via a balance, pragmatic approach,” says Van Lee. “Leaders must bring accuracy, certainty, and speed to decision making and action taking. This requires a heightened level of courage and moral fortitude.”

Van Lee worked in engineering and business development positions before joining Booz Allen in 1984 and moving to the firm’s headquarters in McLean, Virginia. Today, he assists global organizations in building their capabilities and improving their resilience to shocks related to growth. In addition, he assumed leadership of the firm’s public health business in 2008.

Wherever he worked, however, Van Lee has also supported philanthropic, educational, artistic, and professional organizations that served the causes in which he believed.

He serves as a board member of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund; Washington Performing Arts Society; New York City Center for Charter School Excellence; and Abyssinian Development Corporation. He chairs the board of the Evidence Dance Company; co-chairs the board of the New York International Ballet Competition; is trustee and treasurer of the Studio Museum in Harlem; and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council. He co-led the Urban Enterprise Initiative with the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation, driving enhanced competitiveness to small businesses in Harlem.

In addition to the Washington Business Journal Minority Business Leader Award, Van Lee has earned other civic and leadership awards too numerous to mention, the most recent of which was the Black Engineer of the Year Award in 2008.

story posted April 14, 2009