{"id":21240,"date":"2026-05-05T10:26:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apexforyouth.org\/?post_type=news&p=21240"},"modified":"2026-05-05T10:26:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T14:26:36","slug":"apex-in-the-news-melody-lee-wants-women-to-claim-their-seat-at-the-table","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/apexforyouth.org\/es\/news-and-announcements\/apex-in-the-news-melody-lee-wants-women-to-claim-their-seat-at-the-table\/","title":{"rendered":"[Apex in the News]: Melody Lee Wants Women to Claim Their Seat at the Table"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In ELLE\u2019s monthly series <\/em>Office Hours<\/a><\/em>, we ask people in powerful positions to take us through their first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. Just in time for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, we sat down with Melody Lee, the chief marketing officer of Mercedes-Benz. You can credit her with steering the storied auto manufacturer firmly into the 21st century, honoring its 140-year legacy as the maker of the first-ever car while elevating its cultural cachet, from prestigious, invite-only events like The Masters to tapping Lucy Liu as the brand voice and putting Miranda Priestly herself in the backseat of a Maybach in <\/em>The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/a>, in theaters now.<\/em> \u201cI\u2019ve never been bored in my career,\u201d she says. Here\u2019s how she stays entertained.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My first job<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My very first job was playing piano and violin as part of a musical duo with my brother, Milton. We were called the \u201cM&M Music Makers.\u201d We had business cards\u2014we played church services, weddings, bar mitzvahs. I even showed up at a guy\u2019s office once and did a musical telegram for his partner. My Chinese mother inspired us to make it a business. We started in middle school; I was in sixth grade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My worst job<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My worst job was sold to me as a business development job and it turned out to be selling office supplies door to door. I\u2019d just get dropped off in an office park, and I\u2019d have to go suite to suite selling things on foot. That lasted about two weeks. At that point, I had two degrees in International Affairs and Political Science; I had a bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degree. I spent all of college studying abroad instead of working all four summers (Oxford University, an art and architecture program in Italy, and China twice), so I had no job experience coming out of college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My path to becoming a C-suite executive<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The summer after my freshman year at Georgia Tech, I was at Oxford and took a class on human rights, and that got me hooked. From that point on, I thought, This is the degree I actually want<\/em>. I thought I would study and eventually become a diplomat. But my now-husband wanted to get his PhD at UT Austin [The University of Texas at Austin], so I moved with him, and I worked in an Irish pub for a year as a cocktail waitress. It\u2019s still one of my favorite jobs to this day because it taught me how to deal with very difficult, sometimes drunken people. I learned how to stand up for myself. I learned the art of small talk. It\u2019s good experience to serve; you learn the mentality and the mindset of being in that position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, I saw a posting for an internship at a crisis PR company called Public Strategies. I started as an intern making $12 an hour in 2006 and worked my way up to an EVP position there six years later because I really liked the work. Then I did my first stint in marketing at General Motors in Detroit for six years. I knew then that luxury marketing was for me. Shiseido gave me a chance to launch Laura Mercier in China, so that was a very different job\u2014to have full P&L responsibility for a makeup brand in another country. Then I made a transition into the world of art and design at MillerKnoll, which oversees Herman Miller and Design Within Reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The commonality between everything I\u2019ve done is luxury and premium marketing. I find the psychological challenge of trying to get someone to pay more for something that they know they shouldn\u2019t have to be really interesting. It means you have to be really conscious about building brand strength and loyalty and affinity\u2014it\u2019s that intangible value that\u2019s so fun. Then a recruiter called and said the CMO job at Mercedes-Benz USA is open. I was like, \u201cThat\u2019s cute, I\u2019ll give you some recommendations.\u201d Six weeks later I had the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On dealing with imposter syndrome<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve always had someone propel me into whatever is next, and I\u2019ve never felt ready. Every single time I get put in a position I\u2019m like, \u201c<\/em>Are you sure? You want me to do that? I\u2019m not sure I\u2019m ready.\u201d And every time I\u2019ve had someone really instrumental and influential saying, \u201c<\/em>Yeah, you are.\u201d I\u2019ve always been uncomfortable. <\/em>One thing my parents really raised my brother and me to do\u2014and really instilled in us\u2014was a \u201cdo whatever it takes\u201d mentality, whether that was grades, instruments, or dedicating ourselves to our church activities, whatever it was, nothing is above you, and nothing is beneath you. Nothing is out of your grasp; nothing is out of your reach. Ask the right questions, figure it out\u2014but nothing is also beneath you, which means if you need to take the trash out, then you\u2019re going to take it out; if you\u2019re the last one in the room, you\u2019re going to turn off all the lights. That has served me well, because I always knew to do whatever it took.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How I explain what I do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My job is twofold: it\u2019s to ensure that the Mercedes-Benz brand is as strong as possible for this generation and for every generation to follow. At the same time, the other part of my job is to make sure we are meeting our business objectives. We know what we have to sell in the United States; marketing has to act as an enabler to sell every single vehicle. There\u2019s no average day; no day is the same, but I think that\u2019s the best part.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The part of my role that feels the most fulfilling<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My team. I am so energized every day by how creative, resourceful, collaborative they are. There are so many great ideas that are always coming out of them; I don\u2019t have to be the creative one, I don\u2019t have to have the ideas\u2014I just have to champion them. I just have to allow them to do what they do best and enable them to succeed. It\u2019s the best job in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My proudest career moment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2008, when the International Olympic Committee [IOC] was under threat of having the Beijing Olympic Games be boycotted for public policy reasons in China, the IOC tapped a team to support on crisis communications. They gave me six hours\u2019 notice to get on a plane to Switzerland for however long it took. I was there for six months. For me, that kickstarted everything that came later in my career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On bringing Mercedes-Benz into the 21st century<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a risk calculus that we have to make every day. You don\u2019t chase trends, you don\u2019t just go after what\u2019s buzzy, but you understand how you can keep the brand culturally relevant in a way that\u2019s very authentic and true to the brand itself and has been true for 140 years. If you try to insert yourself in ways that don\u2019t make sense, the consumer is going to see it right away. Our goal is always to build the best long-term platforms that we can. That\u2019s why we\u2019ve been a partner of The Masters for 19 years; that\u2019s why we continue to thoughtfully put ourselves in pop culture, like The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/em>, in a way that makes sense and helps the brand grow for the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why I got involved with Apex for Youth<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I had an executive coach say to me in a session once that my intensity needed to be channeled into something that really mattered. And it\u2019s not that my jobs haven\u2019t mattered, but he wanted me to find another place where I\u2019m really doing something that meaningfully changes something that I want to see in the world. That led me to do some volunteer marketing work for Apex for Youth and eventually join the board five years ago. It\u2019s been one of the most rewarding experiences. It is the outlet I need to make sure that my creativity and my strategic thought and my encouragement of teams is being used for something that creates a more equitable future for the Asian American community. You make time for the stuff that\u2019s really important to you; you find a way to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My best advice for women in business<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a physical piece of advice when you\u2019re in a meeting: women tend to sit on the chairs on the outside of the table. That is your first signal that those people\u2019s voices don\u2019t matter. Sit at the table. If someone moves you, that\u2019s fine. But sit there like you belong there, because once you physically do that, it ties to your mental and emotional state. Know your voice matters so that you do speak up. You may not actually feel the confidence, but you need to project the confidence to be in that room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more here: https:\/\/www.elle.com\/culture\/a71187042\/melody-lee-mercedes-benz-career-interview\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Just in time for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, we sat down with Melody Lee, the chief marketing officer of Mercedes-Benz.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":21241,"template":"","class_list":["post-21240","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n[Apex in the News]: Melody Lee Wants Women to Claim Their Seat at the Table | Apex for Youth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apexforyouth.org\/es\/noticias-y-anuncios\/apex-in-the-news-melody-lee-wants-women-to-claim-their-seat-at-the-table\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"[Apex in the News]: Melody Lee Wants Women to Claim Their Seat at the Table | Apex for Youth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In ELLE\u2019s monthly series Office Hours, we ask people in powerful positions to take us through their first jobs, worst jobs, and everything in between. 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