Business Leader, Educator, and Creator James Rhee Elected to Board of the National Humanities Center

The National Humanities Center (NHC) is pleased to announce the recent election of James Rhee as the newest member of the Center’s Board of Trustees.

Rhee has earned an international reputation as a highly successful investor, transformative business leader, pioneering thinker, and gifted educator. His approach to leadership, centered on a deeply human and dynamic definition of agency, is detailed in his acclaimed and globally best-selling book, Red Helicopter: A Parable for Our Times. His TED Talk on The Value of Kindness at Work has captured the imagination of millions.

In Red Helicopter, Rhee articulates a philosophy and an operating system that make tangible the critical roles of trust, dignity, and systems thinking in designing and fostering thriving organizations and communities. This perspective—that fundamental human values are foundational to durable success—resonates strongly with the NHC’s commitment to exploring the complex interplay between human experience, culture, and society.

A longtime private equity investor, Rhee is the founder and president of FirePine Group LLC and the former Chairman and CEO of Ashley Stewart. He is also a charter member of Ashoka University’s Entrepreneur-to-Entrepreneur Network, a founding member of JPMorgan Chase’s Office of Black Affairs, and a former board member and honoree of the National Retail Federation. In addition, Rhee has appointments at Howard University, where he serves as the Johnson Chair of Entrepreneurship, the Sloan School of Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Duke University School of Law, and Yale University, where he recently joined as Entrepreneur-in-Residence of Yale Ventures and Artist-in-Residence of the Cultural Innovation Lab.

“We are thrilled to welcome James Rhee to our Board of Trustees,” said Rishi Jaitly, chair of the National Humanities Center’s Board of Trustees. “James’s remarkable ability to integrate deeply humanistic principles with astute business acumen aligns perfectly with the Center’s mission to advance humanistic scholarship and its relevance to contemporary issues. His insights on the ethical dimensions of leadership and the power of compassion in decision-making will be invaluable as we continue to champion the importance of the humanities in all facets of life.”

“I am deeply honored to join the Board of Trustees of the storied National Humanities Center,” said James Rhee. “As the only independent institute dedicated exclusively to advanced study in all areas of the humanities, the Center will serve a critical role in helping the world grapple with the existential question of what it means to be human. My business work applies multimodal approaches to cognition, expression, and systems, drawing from my coursework in the humanities and the law at Harvard University. The Center is a national treasure, and I look forward to contributing to the Center’s efforts to give voice to humanity in today’s complex discourse on the future of living, working, and leading.”