Lee Kean Yew was born in Jinjang New Village, Malaysia. He completed his PhD in Economics and Administration at the Asia-Europe Institute of the University of Malaya. Prior to this, he served as the Academic Director of the Centre for Malaysia Chinese Studies, where he engaged in scholarly research focusing on Malaysia's Chinese community and published his findings in books, conference proceedings, and a bilingual journal.

Currently, he is a senior lecturer and full member at both the Department of Chinese Studies and the Malaysian Chinese Research Centre (MCRC) at the University of Malaya. His research primarily explores overseas Chinese business, cultural studies and religion ethics in business as well as contemporary Buddhism . Among his responsibilities is to promote mutual understanding and communication to explore cooperation opportunities between Malaysian Chinese and overseas enterprises.

His research interests encompass entrepreneurial economics, innovation management, Chinese business studies, Asian ethnicity, and development studies. He aims to enhance interactions between Malaysian firms and governments, foster closer ties among Malaysian and international businesses, and contribute to the overall development of Malaysian-European and Malaysian-China economic and trade relations.

Recently, he joined the International Council of Small Business (ICSB) to support the growth and development of small businesses in Malaysia. Additionally, he has earned a one-year diploma in Buddhist studies from the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka.

李健友（John Lee Kean Yew）出生于马来西亚吉隆坡增江新村，祖籍惠州，属于客家人。李博士毕业于马来亚大学亚欧研究院，获得经济管理博士学位。目前，他担任马来亚大学中文系的高级讲师，以及华人研究中心的学术成员和马来西亚华社研究中心（华研）的学术董事。

在2018年，李博士荣获第11届“崇越论文大赏”最佳论文奖。他多次受邀参与在马来西亚、中国、英国、美国、澳大利亚等地举行的国际学术会议，并发表的多篇论文均被收录在WOS及SCOPUS社会科学论文索引数据库中。

值此“一带一路倡议”迈入十周年之际，李博士与马来西亚拉曼理工大学的学者共同撰写了《十年成就：中国“一带一路倡议”对马来西亚经济增长的贡献》（2023年），以及英文专著《隐性中的新知识：马来西亚华人家族企业创新》（Routledge，2024年）。他的研究领域涵盖华人家族企业、企业精神与创新管理、佛教研究、华侨华人研究、中国-马来西亚经济发展研究等。此外，他还获得斯里兰卡佛教和巴利大学的佛教研究一年制文凭。