In 2023, Marietta S. Lee became the first woman to lead The Lee Company, a Westbrook-based manufacturer her grandfather Leighton Lee II founded in 1948.
The promotion, which made The Lee Co. a third-generation family business, came more than 20 years after she joined the company as an assistant facilities manager.
The new CEO recently said she plans to lead her company toward steady growth as it develops new products and continues to make miniature precision fluid controls used in the aerospace, medical, scientific, printing and other industries.
Additionally, Lee has taken on more of a statewide leadership role. In December, she was elected vice chair of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association’s board of directors, a position that will allow her to help shape pro-business policies at the state Capitol.
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The Lee Co. traces its roots back to Space Race-era technology development, when it supplied parts that kept the oxygen supply of astronauts safe while they walked on the moon during missions between 1969 and 1972.
Today, Lee Co. has three sites in Westbrook and Essex, occupying more than 1 million square feet of manufacturing and corporate office space. It employs more than 1,100 people.
While she’s spent more than 20 years at The Lee Co. working in different roles, Lee said her original passion was journalism.
Before joining the family business, she worked for several years as a reporter in Houston, Texas, and Washington, D.C.