Christian Lee
CEO
Mint House
Christian Lee is a global executive with a 25-year track record of creating and realizing enterprise value across both high-growth startups and Fortune 100 companies. He has extensive leadership experience in the US and internationally, having served at various times as CEO, CFO, Managing Director of Asia, and Head of Corporate Development. He has successfully led companies through hyper-growth, geographic expansion, building scalable infrastructure, new business launches, organizational restructurings, and cost-cutting exercises. He has executed more than fifty strategic transactions, including acquisitions, investments, mergers, joint ventures, and debt and equity raises totaling over $150 billion in value. Christian currently serves as CEO of Mint House, an innovative hospitality operator. Since joining in 2022, he has led a full-scale turnaround—cutting corporate costs by more than 40%, rebuilding core operational and analytics infrastructure, growing revenue by over 25% annually, acquiring and integrating a competitor, and raising $50 million in new funding. He also recruited a new executive team, launched properties in new markets, and improved unit-level margins—positioning the company for a major strategic partnership and exit. Prior to Mint House, he served as CFO of Transfix, where he led all financial and capital markets strategy, including raising $50 million in equity and $35 million in structured debt, while preparing the company for a potential public offering. He was also instrumental in driving revenue growth and expanding the product offering through key partnerships. At WeWork, Christian served as CFO and later as Managing Director of WeWork Asia, based in Shanghai. There, he scaled the Asia business from $5 million to $1 billion in revenue across eight countries (China, India, Japan, Korea, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia). He led over $2.5 billion in capital raises, established regional joint ventures, and executed multiple strategic deals, including an operational and capital partnership in India, acquisitions in China and Singapore, and numerous private and governmental partnerships. As CFO, he oversaw global financial functions, implemented Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and PCAOB audits, and helped secure over $5 billion in equity and $1 billion in credit facilities. Before WeWork, Christian led Corporate Development at Time Warner Cable, where he played a key role in taking the company public via its spin-off from Time Warner. He led numerous transactions, including more than twenty acquisitions and partnerships, including the $18 billion acquisition of Adelphia, and played an integral role in the Dodgers partnership. He worked closely with the CEO, CFO, and Board on the company’s hostile bid defense, attempted merger with Comcast, and the ultimate $79 billion merger with Charter Communications, realizing a 600% return from spin-off to exit. Christian holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BA from Carleton College. He has lived and worked extensively abroad, including three years in Shanghai, three years in Lahore, Pakistan during high school, and three months in Kabul, Afghanistan during business school. He currently lives in New York with his wife and two children and serves on the boards of BronxWorks and Carleton College.
Sessions
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026
3:00 pm - 3:35 pm
Non-Hype AI: Practical Applications Across Real Estate Asset Classes
Track 4
Palazzo A
AI is transforming real estate — or is it? Where is AI actually delivering results? Join our panel discussion with senior leaders and operators from commercial, multifamily, hospitality, construction, and other sectors for a candid discussion on the real-world applications of AI inside their organizations. From operations and asset management to development, leasing, finance, and customer experience, panelists will share practical use cases, lessons learned, measurable outcomes, and where they see the greatest opportunities ahead — cutting through the hype to focus on what actually works (and what doesn't).