February 04, 2025

Leading with Authenticity

22 minutes

The Lee Company president and CEO Marietta Lee never saw herself leading the business her grandfather started 77 years ago.

Today, the Westbrook-based manufacturer employs 1,200 people making miniature hydraulic components for the aerospace, medical, and automotive industries.

“We are a family business,” Lee told the CBIA BizCast.

“We’ve always treated our employees as our family and we’ve benefited from a lot of loyalty from our employees over the years.”

But Lee, who was elected CBIA board chair in December 2024, started her career journey not just outside the family business, but far from the manufacturing floor.

“It really wasn’t my dream to work there at all,” she said. “I went off to school and became a lawyer.”

“I worked in TV news for a long time, that was what I wanted to do.”

After several years working as an investigative journalist and having children, Lee moved back to Connecticut to be closer to family.

“My dad came to me and said, ‘Have you ever thought about working at the company?’” she explained.

After a lot of “soul searching” she decided to join the family business.

Lee worked her way up, including earning a master’s degree in engineering management.

“I worked in a lot of different facets of the company on my way to where I am now, which has been really invaluable,” she said.

Lee became CEO of the company in 2023, but she points to the COVID-19 pandemic as a turning point in her career.

Lee said she not only worried about her workers’ safety, but about getting groceries for her family as so many stores were impacted.

“Somebody said, ‘How are you doing?’ And I just lost it,” she said.

“I was like, ‘I am not good. I go home, I cry.’ I just totally let down my guard.

“And the woman looked at me, and she was like ‘me too.’ And we had the best conversation.”

Lee she’d previously emulated the styles of those that came before her, which she perceived as stoic and strong.

“It sort of dawned on me that I need to be authentic. I need to be me.” she said.

“I don’t have to be somebody else’s leader or lead the way somebody else does. I can be myself. It was refreshing.”

Lee said that by being authentic and vulnerable, she works to empower the people that work for her.

“I think people respond to it. And I make better decisions as a result,” she said.

Lee acknowledged that being a woman in manufacturing isn’t easy.

“I am usually the only woman at the table, and that’s kind of a lonely place,” she said.

She said that when she joined The Lee Company, there were a lot of women, including young mothers.

But there were not a lot of women in middle and upper management—something that has changed during her tenure.

Lee also started “The Ladies of Lee,” an informal group that gets together every few months to talk about issues unique to being a woman in the workforce.

“It’s always going to be tough, but to know that you have a little bit of a support system at work, I think is really great,” she said.

Lee’s term as board chair comes at an historic time for CBIA and a pivotal moment for the state’s economy.

“For the first time ever, we have more women than men on the board, which is really great,” she said.

Lee said the diversity of the board of directors is critical, not just when it comes to gender, but also the size of the companies and the different industries represented.

“Connecticut, I think, is in a really good place right now, and we have a great opportunity to make Connecticut even better for our business community,” she said.

“I think it’s very important that we work hard to make Connecticut an affordable state for both potential employees and for businesses.”