Isaac Lee

Isaac Lee Possin
Isaac Lee at the World Economic Forum on Latin America in 2010
Born	(1971-01-05) January 5, 1971 Bogotá, Colombia
Nationality	Colombian
Alma mater	Universidad de Los Andes (MA)
Occupation	CEO of Fusion President of News, Univision
Employer	Univision Communications
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Fusion President of News for Univision Former Editor in Chief of Revista Semana Former Editor in Chief of PODER Magazine

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Lee and the second or maternal family name is Possin.

Isaac Lee Possin, 45, is an award winning journalist, Chief Executive Officer of Fusion and Chief News and Digital Officer for Univision,^[1] overseeing content and strategy across the Univision News and Digital divisions, with additional responsibilities over Multicultural and Music.^[2] Under his leadership, the news division of Univisión has been honored with some of the most recognized awards in the industry including a Peabody for investigative journalism, an IRE Award and the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism. Lee was born in Bogotá, Colombia - from Jewish immigrants - and has been working as a journalist and magazine editor Since the late 1990s. He currently lives in Miami, Florida.

Career

At the age of 25 he was appointed editor of Revista Cromos, Latin America's oldest magazine and at 26, he was named editor-in-chief of Revista Semana, Colombia's most prestigious news magazine. During his tenure at Semana the magazine published a cover story which forced two Colombian cabinet ministers to resign a couple of days later. The magazine also published several investigative pieces and controversial interviews during the time when the country's elected President Ernesto Samper was suspected of financing his campaign with over six million dollars of the Cali cartel of narcotraffic. While at Semana, Lee launched the magazine titles Soho, a men's lifestyle magazine that became the country's most successful publication. He also spearheaded the transition to the digital age and started a process that resulted in a spin-off company that was sold to Terra (a division of Telefonica).

Isaac lived in Israel where he did Mejina and psychology studies at the Hebrew university of Jerusalem, he has a masters in journalism from the Universidad de Los Andes. He is a member of the Georgetown Leadership Seminar. He has attended advanced negotiation seminars at Harvard, and online publishing at Stanford.

In December, 2011 TV Week's NewsPro magazine listed Isaac Lee as one of the most powerful persons in Television news.^[3]

Univision

On December 9, 2010 Univision announced the appointment of Isaac Lee as President of News, the position he currently fulfills.^[4]

Shortly after Joining Univision, Lee announced he was working on the launch of a 24-hour cable news channel in English; the new channel was officially announced in May 2012 as a joint venture between ABC News and Univision.^[5] In February 2013, both networks announced the new channel would be called Fusion^[6]. On October 4, 2013, Fusion announced it had named Lee as Chief Executive Officer; Fusion Boardmember Anne Sweeney, Co-Chairman, Disney Media Networks and President, Disney-ABC Television Group praised "Isaac is a visionary and a true leader. We are delighted that he'll now bring his energy, passion and programming genius to Fusion full time".^[7]

Under Lee's administration, Univision News hosted its first Presidential townhall focused on education with President Barack Obama on March 2011 which attracted an audience of more than 2.7 million viewers.^[8]

Two new departments within news were created in 2011:^[9] An Investigative Unit led by Pulitzer prize winner Gerardo Reyes Documentary Unit which has produced several groundbreaking investigations^[10] and a Documentary Unit that has produced critically acclaimed documentaries which have spawned congressional debates.^[11]

In 2012 for the Electoral Race, in addition to extensive coverage of both the Republican and Democratic National conventions, Univision Noticias kicked off the presidential debates by hosting two groundbreaking townhalls with presidential candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama which generated extensive media coverage.

The new projects and cutting-edge investigative journalism on which Lee and his team have focused has grown Univision News division^[12] and attained it several recognitions for journalistic excellence such as the 2012 Peabody^[13] and IRE Awards^[14] for its “Fast and Furious” investigation, two EMMY Lifetime Achievement Awards,^[15] three Emmy's for outstanding investigative reporting, outstanding newsmagazine and outstanding breaking news coverage and two Gracie awards,^[16] the Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism^[17] and over 14 prestigious awards for five documentaries produced by the Investigative and Documentary units. In June 2013, the Documentary Unit produced "Violación de un Sueño" in an unprecedented partnership with Frontline and the Center for Investigative Reporting.^[18] In March of the same year, Univision News and Participant Media announced a partnership to co-produce ten, one-hour documentaries to air on Pivot Channel in English and on Univision in Spanish.

On September 13, 2013, after the departure of Cesar Conde, the President of Univision Networks, whom Isaac Lee reported to; Univision announced changes to the management team by which Lee and his counterparts in Programming and Sports would begin reporting directly to Randy Falco the CEO of the company. The realignment of the reporting structure prompted very positive comments from Falco who expressed that "Alberto, Isaac and Juan Carlos are three extraordinarily talented executives with keen insights and deep knowledge of our business, our audiences and what makes our Networks so successful," Falco went on to say that "They are largely responsible for the recent success and tremendous momentum of our Network business."^[19]

In February 2015, as part of a reorganization of Univision's digital operation, Isaac Lee's role was expanded to lead Digital for all of Univision as President of Digital.^[20] Shortly after, under Lee's leadership, Univision announced the acquisition of African-American news site The Root.^[21]

In November 2015 Lee was named to the newly created position of chief News and Digital officer, with additional responsibilities over Multicultural and Music and maintaining oversight of the News and Digital divisions.^[22] Shortly after, in December 2015 as part of an effort to expand the company's digital footprint, Lee announced the launch of Udisea a short-form digital video channel.^[23]

PODER Magazine

Prior to his appointment as President of News for Univision, Lee served as Founding Partner and Editor in Chief of PODER Magazine, a pan-regional magazine for the business elite with special editions for the US Hispanic market, Miami, Mexico, Colombia and Peru with a total circulation of over half a million copies. PODER also has content online on the website www.poder360.com and a daily newsletter in Spanish and English about business and politics in the region.

Under Lee's leadership, PODER Magazine won the freedom of press award by the IAPA with a cover story written by Jesús Blancornelas about the Tijuana cartel. PODER had a content agreement with the economist and was acquired in 2009 by media giant Televisa, owned by Emilio Azcarraga Jean.

PODER has produced content driven events for eight years with partners like Columbia University and Georgetown University, National Geographic, the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) and others. These events have had as speakers luminaries in different fields like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Mikhail Gorbachev on reconciliation, Former Prime Minister of Israel Ehud Barak on security, Former President of Chile Ricardo Lagos on Latin America, President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos on cocaine's damage to the environment, President Felipe Calderón on Mexico's challenges, Muhammed Yunus on microfinance, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on foreign policy, Richard Meier on architecture among others.

Organizations

In April 2014, the Associated Press announced it had named Lee to its Board of Directors^[24]

Lee is also a member of the IAPA, the NAHJ, the Foro Iberoamérica Presided by Ricardo Lagos and Carlos Fuentes and serves on the journalism advisory board of ProPublica.^[25] and on the International Advisory Board of the Committee to protect journalists.

In February 2013, Lee was appointed to the board of advisors of the University of Chicago Institute of Politics,^[26] and in June he joined the board of the International Center for Journalists.^[27]

In May 2015, Legendary Pictures announced it had named Isaac Lee to its board of Directors.^[28]

Other projects

In 2010 he co-produced^[29] his first documentary "Colombia Hostage Rescue" for National Geographic TV which aired in 13 countries. He also co-produced with Televisión Española an International Emmy Award nominated TV mini-series about Operación Jaque.^[30] He was a producer^[29] of a featured film, "Paraiso Travel", an immigration story based on a novel of acclaimed writer Jorge Franco. Paraiso won 14 film festivals in different categories.

In 2010 Lee co-founded the Mexican web portal Animal Político a politically focused news website which quickly became one of the most visited news portals in Mexico.

At the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2009, the Media, Entertainment & Information Industry Partners launched a year-long project to explore media opportunities in emerging markets, where Lee was featured. The project is a joint collaboration, between the Yale School of Management and McKinsey & Co.

Isaac Lee also participated in the 2010 World Economic Forum Latin America in the session Economic and Social Investment Opportunities in Colombia ^[31]

External links

References

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