How does one person decide to save a neighborhood everyone else has written off? What does it take to turn family stories of resilience into real change on the ground? And can a mission bigger than yourself actually end up saving you in return?

She opens up about growing up with her dad, the legendary Bob Lee, a man so kind he’d bring a security guard a tie from Hong Kong, and how that quiet example of treating everyone with respect shaped everything she does.

It’s a warm, honest conversation about purpose, perseverance, and what happens when you decide a place is worth fighting for, even when the odds say otherwise. Let’s dive in!

In This Episode:

[00:00] Welcome to Giants

[01:35] Balancing it all

[02:08] An ecosystem of people

[02:36] Remembering Bob Lee

[04:13] Growing up in the Lee family

[05:30] The kindest man in the room

[06:30] Pressure and expectations

[07:18] Working with her father

[08:31] Building a village, not a team

[10:06] Her grandfather's one-way ticket

[11:01] A wartime survival story

[12:43] Second-generation identity

[13:49] Rediscovering Chinatown in 2004

[14:42] Values passed down

[15:38] Teaching resilience to the next generation

[16:16] Why "Storytelling Centre," not museum

[19:40] Launching Linacare

[20:14] A drug delivery breakthrough

[22:09] Turning down the exit

[23:09] Sophie's choice: Linacare or Chinatown

[24:15] The search before the calling

[25:30] Falling into her life's work

[26:51] Pitching an "impossible" idea to her dad

[27:22] Where the Chinatown Foundation began

[29:20] The first gala, three months to launch

[30:13] The 3-pillar approach

[30:52] Validating the idea

[31:55] Perseverance vs. stubbornness

[34:03] The philosophy of partnership

[35:38] Trust as currency

[36:38] Addressing the Downtown Eastside

[38:16] Building Bob and Michael's Place

[40:19] Seeing her father's name on the building

[41:53] Redefining success after cancer

[43:16] Rapid fire

Notable Quotes

[04:51] "You learn by example. You don't learn by people telling you what to do. You learn by watching somebody." — Carol Lee

[08:03] "Trying to revitalize Chinatown is going to be 10 times harder than UBC Properties Trust." — Bob Lee (as recalled by Carol)

[13:17] "You don't realize how important something is until you're at the risk of losing it." — Carol Lee

[16:29] "There wasn't any one big heroic figure. It was all these little stories that, if you put them together, created a lot of impact." — Carol Lee

[23:29] "Saving Chinatown... you'll leave a legacy for future generations." — Henry Fung (as recalled by Carol)

[25:17] "You don't really know how the dots are gonna connect. You can only have faith that they will connect." — Carol Lee

[42:26] "I thought I was gonna come and save Chinatown. In some ways, this mission saved me." — Carol Lee

Our Guest

Carol Lee is a Vancouver-based entrepreneur, philanthropist, and community leader. She is the chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation, which she helped found to revitalize Vancouver's historic Chinatown through a three-pillar approach: physical revitalization and social housing, economic development, and cultural preservation. She is also the owner of Chinatown Barbecue and the soon-to-reopen Ho restaurant. Carol is the chair of the UBC Properties Trust and serves on numerous boards. She has been recognized with both the Order of Canada and the Order of British Columbia, and in 2026 she was inducted into Vancouver Magazine's Power 50 Hall of Fame after 10 consecutive appearances on the list.

Resources and Links

Giants

Link

Carol Lee

LinkedIn

Vancouver Chinatown Foundation Become a member: https://www.chinatownfoundation.org/membershipDonate to their mission: https://www.chinatownfoundation.org/donate Get involved with the organization: https://www.chinatownfoundation.org/work-with-us#volunteer Chinatown Storytelling Centre: https://www.chinatownstorytellingcentre.org Linacare Cosmotherapy IncNejeed KassamLinkedIn