Los Angeles, California, United States
Rachel Lee is a seasoned private equity executive and independent board director. Her decade of board-level oversight spans high-growth sectors, including AI-driven infrastructure and consumer services including health, wellness, and fitness. Currently, Ms. Lee serves on the Boards of Directors for Applied Digital Corporation (NASDAQ: APLD), a designer, builder, and operator of data centers for AI, cloud, networking, and blockchain workloads; Bank of Hope (NASDAQ: HOPE), the largest Korean American bank in the U.S.; Xponential Fitness (NYSE: XPOF), one of the leading global franchisors of boutique health and wellness brands; and Legacy Franchise Concepts, the parent company of SweatHouz, a rapidly growing leader in infrared sauna and cold plunge boutique studios. Her previous board memberships include notable companies such as Cooper’s Hawk Winery and Restaurants, Floor & Decor (NYSE: FND), and Insight Global, among others. Before her board career, Ms. Lee spent nearly 15 years at Ares Management (NYSE: ARES), where she served as Partner and Head of the Consumer Private Equity practice. Prior to joining Ares in 2008, Ms. Lee was an Investment Banking Generalist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. Ms. Lee holds B.S. degrees in Business Administration and Accounting from the University of Southern California.
Lead Independent Director Chair of the Independent Transaction Committee Member of the Audit Committee Member of the Compensation Committee Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Xponential Fitness, Inc. (NYSE: XPOF) is one of the leading global franchisors of boutique health and wellness brands. Through its mission to deliver the talents, assets, and capabilities necessary for successful franchise growth, the Company operates a diversified platform of six brands spanning modalities including Pilates, barre, stretching, strength training, metabolic health, and yoga. In partnership with its franchisees and master franchisees, Xponential offers energetic, accessible, and personalized workout experiences led by highly qualified instructors in studio locations throughout the U.S. and internationally, with franchise, master franchise and international expansion agreements in 49 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and 30 additional countries. Xponential’s portfolio of brands includes Club Pilates, the largest Pilates brand in the United States; StretchLab, a concept offering one-on-one and group stretching services; YogaSix, the largest franchised yoga brand in the United States; Pure Barre, a total body workout that uses the ballet barre to perform small isometric movements, and the largest Barre brand in the United States; BFT, a functional training and strength-based program; and Lindora, a provider of medically guided wellness and metabolic health solutions. For more information, please visit the Company’s website at xponential.com.
Member of the Compensation Committee Member of the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee Applied Digital (Nasdaq: APLD) named Best Data Center in the Americas 2025 by Datacloud — designs, builds, and operates high-performance, sustainably engineered data centers and colocation services for artificial intelligence, cloud, networking, and blockchain workloads. Headquartered in Dallas, TX, and founded in 2021, the company combines hyperscale expertise, proprietary waterless cooling, and rapid deployment capabilities to deliver secure, scalable compute at industry-leading speed and efficiency, while creating economic opportunities in underserved communities through its award-winning Polaris Forge AI Factory model.
Member of the Executive Committee Member of the Audit Committee Member of the Risk Committee Hope Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: HOPE) is the holding company of Bank of Hope, the first and only super regional Korean American bank in the United States with $18 billion in total assets as of March 31, 2024. Headquartered in Los Angeles and serving a multi-ethnic population of customers across the nation, the Bank provides a full suite of commercial, corporate and consumer loans, including commercial and commercial real estate lending, SBA lending, residential mortgage and other consumer lending; deposit and fee-based products and services; international trade financing; cash management services, foreign currency exchange solutions, and interest rate derivative products, among others. Bank of Hope operates 54 full-service branches in California, Washington, Texas, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Alabama, and Georgia. The Bank also operates SBA loan production offices, commercial loan production offices, and residential mortgage loan production offices in the United States; and a representative office in Seoul, Korea.
The Harvard-Westlake Korean American Alumni Network ("HWKAAN") strives to connect Korean American alumni from Harvard, Westlake, and Harvard-Westlake and further enable the mission of Harvard-Westlake by fostering its inclusive community among alumni, students, and parents to be purposeful, contributing members of society. HWKAAN sponsors cultural and industry specific events that are open to all members of the Harvard-Westlake community.