[1] Lee served as a chairman of POSB Bank (1994–1998), Central Provident Fund (2002–2005), Sentosa Development Corporation (2013–2019), Tote Board (2013–2021) and GuocoLand (2013–2022).
Lee's father worked as a foreman for the transport division in the Royal Air Force, and his mother was a homemaker.
[9] Although trained as an engineer, Lee was posted to the administrative service in 1974, serving in the development division of the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
Thereafter, under the chairmanship of Cheng Tong Fatt, Lee was part of a committee to transform Singapore into a "garden city", serving as its secretary.
During this period, Lee was involved in writing progress reports and papers about the clean up of the Singapore River and the Kallang Basin to the Cabinet.
[9] In December 1997, Lee succeeded Er Kwong Wah as permanent secretary for the Ministry of Community Development.
[20] In 2005, Lee stepped down as permanent secretary, and he was appointed as commissioner of the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore.
[22][23] On 1 January 2013, Lee became chairman of the Sentosa Development Corporation and Tote Board, succeeding Loo Choon Yong and Bobby Chin Yoke Choong respectively.