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Higher learning and entrepreneurship were Anthony Lee’s destiny.
The intersection of education and creating new business opportunities was something Lee witnessed firsthand through his father.
“My father had a huge influence on me,” Lee told a crowd of nearly 400 people when he received the Business Journal’s Excellence in Entrepreneurship Award.
At the Irvine Marriott event held on March 20, he was honored for taking Westcliff University from a few hundred students to several thousand since becoming the school’s president and CEO in 2012.
His journey is inspired by his entrepreneurial father.
“Westcliff was one of his several ventures,” Lee said about his father’s U.S. business empire.
Lee’s father started his own education-themed business in Vietnam before being forced to leave the country—and everything he built —for the United States in 1975.
The elder Lee arrived in the U.S. with the bare minimum but re-established a new education-based business here in Southern California.
Westcliff University, founded in 1993, provides practical education and prepares students to hit the ground running for jobs they land as soon as they graduate.
Following in his Father’s Footsteps
Lee earned his bachelor’s from University of California, Irvine and then graduated from University of California, Los Angeles’ Anderson School of Management in 2008.
It was around that time that Westcliff University had 20 students enrolled.
When Lee graduated from business school, he recalls his father telling him that he must take over Westcliff otherwise, “I’m going to close it down.”
So, he took over.
As university president and CEO, Lee, who received a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California, grew the student base by expanding the school’s academic offerings, awarding more than $12 million in scholarships and providing online and on-campus courses within a flexible system.
“I’ve actually been at this for 18 years, working in education and following in my dad’s footsteps,” Lee said shortly after receiving his award.
Westcliff University in Irvine, under Lee’s leadership, combined technology-based learning with traditional campus-based classes. Lee also expanded Westcliff’s athletics program. The Warriors, as the teams are called, compete in baseball, basketball, soccer and water polo, among other sports.
The school’s student body hails from more than 130 countries. Westcliff’s academic offerings include business, education, engineering, nursing and technology. The formerly independent Western State College of Law, which offers a juris doctorate, is also under the Westcliff umbrella.
Lee said his vision to grow Westcliff University was the result of his father’s dedication to online education.
“He was a big, successful entrepreneur in Vietnam. He gave up everything after the war, came here, started with nothing and had to build everything back up again,” he said.
“We serve so many demographics. We’re giving students an opportunity they can’t find elsewhere,” Lee continued.
One of those practical lessons is learning from the Tech Coast Angels Venture Group. Lee launched the initiative so Westcliff students could gain hands-on experience to solve real-world business issues.
The Orange County chapter of Tech Coast Angels is an angel investment organization that invests in businesses across the United States and in Canada, with a focus on technology. Westcliff students meet every other week to observe firsthand the Tech Coast Angels’ pitching process.
The for-profit institute of higher learning also developed artificial intelligence technology to incorporate into Westcliff University’s online learning interface.
“We have faculty trainings on AI. We’ve embraced it,” Lee said. “It’s ever-changing. On the academic level, we have three patents on new software we’ve developed.”
Lee explained the software allows students to interact with course materials and instructors during all online sessions.
Lee sees initiatives like Tech Coast Angels’ pitching sessions and the growth of AI at Westcliff as extensions of how his father taught business.
The youngest of four children, he said his father put him in a negotiations course when he was a teenager and was regularly quizzed on business themes and topics at the dinner table.
“My dad is a successful educator and entrepreneur. He’s resilient,” Lee told the Business Journal. “Throughout my whole life he’d teach me business.”