Born in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Lee’s parents were both Chinese-Cambodian. He started primary school in 1970, but his education was soon cut short when, with the support of the US government, General Lon Nol staged a coup d’Etat to depose Prince Norodom Sihanouk on March 18 that same year.
On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge seized control of Phnom Penh and evacuated the city’s residents to the countryside. Lee was taken away from his family at the age of ten to join a labour camp for boys. He lived through much brutality and oppression. After the Vietnamese liberated Cambodia from the Khmer Rouge, Lee lived with his family for a while in the ruins of Phnom Penh, struggling to survive. At fourteen he fled to a refugee camp in Thailand while his family remained behind.
In 1981, Lee resettled in Australia under the Refugee and Special Humanitarian Program. In 1982 at the age of sixteen, he began sustained formal education for the first time at the Christian Brother’s school in Sydney. It was here he took on the name Vincent, given to him by a Catholic nun and supporter of the St Vincent de Paul society.
In 1992, he graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Economics degree. In 1999, he obtained a Master’s degree in Business and Finance from the University of Technology, Sydney. Lee moved to Tokyo in 2000 and now lives in Tokyo with his Japanese wife and three children.
Official Website of Vincent Lee 