Charlie ChangWon Lee

About Charlie ChangWon Lee

Charlie ChangWon Lee, MD, MBA, is a Partner and biotechnology investor at Caligan Partners, a therapeutics-focused investment fund headquartered in New York City. Prior to joining Caligan, Charlie worked in both private and public life sciences investing at Blackstone Life Sciences and Foresite Capital. He has founded, operated, and advised early-stage biotechnology companies based on technologies spun out of Harvard and MIT.

Born in Seoul, South Korea, Charlie grew up in a Korean American community in Northern New Jersey. From an early age, he witnessed the generosity of those who helped his family build a new life in the United States and the dedication of his public school teachers, who fostered his early interest in the sciences. As an undergraduate at Harvard College, he developed a passion for medicine and chemistry. He trained under Professor Dennis Kasper at Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he conducted research in bacterial genomics, lipidomics, and immunology, culminating in a senior thesis that earned the Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize.

Charlie graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College and earned his MD magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School through the Harvard–MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is the author of more than 15 publications in leading journals, including Nature, JAMA, JAMA Oncology, and Health Affairs, and advocates for Asian American leadership in medicine and business.