How Did I Get Here?

Debra Lee

Chairman and chief executive officer, BET Networks
  • Education
  • James B. Dudley High School, Greensboro, N.C., class of 1972
  • Brown University, class of 1976
  • Harvard Law School, class of 1980
  • John F. Kennedy School of Government, class of 1980
  • Work Experience
  • 1980
    Law clerk for Judge Barrington Parker Sr., U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
  • 1981–86
    Associate attorney, Steptoe & Johnson
  • 1986–96
    Vice president and general counsel, BET Networks
  • 1989–2000
    Publisher, executive vice president for business strategy, BET Networks
  • 1996–2005
    President and chief operating officer, BET Networks
  • 2005–Present
    Chairman and CEO, BET Networks
  • Life Lessons
  • “I like a lot of data, but the best decisions I’ve made are from my gut.”
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  • “Love what you do. There’s no demarcation line between my work and personal life.”
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  • “Bring your kids to events so they see the hard work you’re doing.”
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  • In high school, 1972
    “It was an all-black public high school when the South was very segregated. Though we didn’t have the resources of the white high schools, we had teachers who really cared.”
  • “The judge thought that a clerkship should be like boot camp. It made the rest of my career seem a lot easier.”
  • With Jay Z and Beyoncé at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, 2006
  • “I built our production studio in D.C. and then started a magazine division. I had about five titles and would pull out whatever [business] card was appropriate for the meeting.”
  • At her 60th birthday party with her children, Quinn and Ava Coleman
  • “It was very clear during freshman week that you either went to law school or medical school, and I wasn’t good at science.”
  • At a law school party, 1979
  • “I thought I was going to go back into the government. I was waiting for the Democrats to come back to office. I found that what I really enjoyed was communications, with a client called BET.”
  • “We doubled programming spending and launched the first network for African American women, Centric. We’re in the U.K. with 14 million subscribers, and in South Africa, and are about to launch in France.”
  • With first lady Michelle Obama at BET Studios, 2013