2013 Executive Excellence Awards (Lifetime Achievement): Jerry Lee

JERRY LEEs record of business success is impressive. He joined Mulvanny Architecture as a draftsman and its fourth employee in 1975, and then went on to achieve partner, buy the practice, build it by designing big-box stores for Costco, Nike and others, merge with G2 in 1999, expand to China in 2002, and create a company that now ranks as the 16th-largest architecture firm in the country.

His Bellevue-based firm has designed more than 600 Costcos, 500 Targets, 125 Nike Factory Store outlets and has been named the No. 3 retail architectural firm in the world. MulvannyG2 has developed and won awards for shopping centers, skyscrapers and mixed-use projects as well, including the Grand Hyatt Seattle, the Tacoma Convention Center and the Shanghai Fudan Hotel.

But those accomplishments are dwarfed by Lees community leadership and philanthropic efforts. In 2011 alone, Lee personally logged 500 hours of community service. He created the firms main charitable event, an annual golf tournament called Swing for the Cure, which has raised more than $1 million over 10 years for the local affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure to battle breast cancer. Lee lost his first wife, Patricia, to breast cancer and his second wife, Charlene, is a breast cancer survivor. He serves as an advisory council board member for the local Susan G. Komen affiliate and is one of its heralded Pink Tie Guys. In recognition of his numerous charitable endeavors, in 2011 he received a Gold Level Presidential Volunteer Service Award from President Barack Obamas Council on Service and Civic Participation.

Lees philosophy is simple: Treat everyone like family, approach clients and contractors as partners, and give of yourself and you will receive in return. It always comes back, he says. No matter how much you give away, it always comes back.