Lee Kean Yew (John Lee Kean Yew) was born in Jinjang New Village, Malaysia, and is of Hakka descent from Huizhou, China. He earned a PhD in Economics and Administration from the Asia-Europe Institute at the University of Malaya. Earlier in his career, he served as the Academic Director of the Centre for Malaysia Chinese Studies, conducting scholarly research on Malaysia’s Chinese community and publishing his findings in books, conference proceedings, and a bilingual journal.

He is presently a senior lecturer and a full member of both the Department of Chinese Studies and the Malaysian Chinese Research Centre (MCRC) at the University of Malaya, where his research spans overseas Chinese business, cultural studies, and ethical dimensions of religion in business, as well as contemporary Buddhism. Among his responsibilities is fostering mutual understanding and facilitating collaboration between Malaysian Chinese communities and overseas enterprises.

His research interests include entrepreneurial economics, innovation management, Chinese business studies, Asian ethnicity, and development studies. He aims to enhance interactions between Malaysian firms and governments, strengthen ties among Malaysian and international businesses, and contribute to the development of Malaysia’s economic and trade relations with Europe and China.

Recently, he joined the International Council of Small Businesses (ICSB) to support the growth and development of small enterprises in Malaysia. He also holds a one-year diploma in Buddhist Studies from the Buddhist and Pali University of Sri Lanka. Publicly, Lee has published in both English and Chinese. In 2018, he received the Best Thesis Award at the 11th TSC Thesis Awards (Oscar of the Management Academic World). He has been invited to international conferences in Malaysia, China, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia, and many of his papers are indexed in the Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus databases.

As Malaysia moves into the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative, he co-authored, with colleagues from Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology (TARUMT) Malaysia, the work “Ten Years of Achievement: The Belt and Road Initiative’s Contribution to Malaysia’s Economic Growth” (2023). He also authored the English monograph “Chinese Family Businesses in Malaysia : Fostering Tacit Knowledge Innovation” (Routledge, 2025). His research areas remain focused on Chinese family firms, entrepreneurial spirit and innovation management, Buddhist studies, overseas Chinese studies, and China–Malaysia economic development. He continues to pursue scholarly endeavors alongside his ongoing roles at University of Malaya and researchers within the Department of Chinese Studies,  MCRC and Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies (Huayan). He also holds a one-year Buddhist Studies diploma from the Sri Lanka Buddhist and Pali University.