Robert Lee ’07

Robert Lee ’07, honored with PAA’s first-ever Emerging Innovator Award, has dedicated himself to identifying complex problems and discovering solutions that make the world better for us all.

Most recently, Robert has focused on clean energy, working as the principal software engineer for a company called Stow Energy in San Francisco that helps homeowners replace inefficient gas furnaces with greener, cleaner, whole-home energy systems. Robert shares Stow’s belief that making a difference in the global climate change problem begins locally, at home.

As a 2022 Fellow with the Clean Energy Leadership Institute (CELI), Robert focused his capstone project on Hawaiian Electric’s adoption of smart electric meters, and he urged Hawai‘i residents in a Civil Beat op-ed to use the data provided by the meters to guide their personal decisions on power consumption and help the utility manage daily supply and demand. 

As a college student studying physics and computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, Robert developed an iPhone app to help Hawai‘i State Civil Defense crews more easily assess damage after a disaster and helped TheBus riders by creating a text messaging platform that could help them check when the next bus was due to arrive. Post college, he worked 10 years at Apple, contributing to hardware and software developments for the iPhone and Apple Watch.

His sense of empathy extends back to Punahou, where he has established an endowed fund, in honor of his late mother, Jennifer Jung Sook Lee, to benefit psychosocial education. Proceeds from the fund help Punahou students learn about mental health and wellness and to dispel old notions of stigma and shame.

Robert’s unwavering commitment to improving the world around him, finding practical solutions to complex problems, and driving sustainable change serves as an inspiration for future generations of innovators.