Katie Lee
Deal-making by day, yoga-posers by night.
Katherine Lee, 26, keeps one foot in a Brentwood hot-yoga studio and the other in a Century City megadeal. She models the spreadsheet, then models the pose. Balance is her whole personality.
About
Balanced, allegedly
Katie left Wharton with a finance degree and one goal: make the model bigger, hit the workout harder, and never carry more than three bags at once.
Today she is a private-equity associate in LA, which is its own full-time workout. Some people get their cardio in at Barry's. Katie gets hers refreshing the deal pipeline, one all-caps client email at a time.
She has strong opinions about cap tables, calf raises, and the correct temperature of a heated room. All three are matters of real discipline. All three are, unfortunately, still at 26 degree-Celsius.
Career
The deal pipeline
Private Equity Associateat Ares Management
Does due diligence, builds models, and calmly explains to the board that the numbers are fine. The spreadsheets are immaculate. So is the posture.
Investment Banking Analystat Morgan Stanley
Two years of 2 a.m. slide decks and one deeply held belief: an all-nighter followed by a sunrise class is basically self-care.
B.S. in Financeat Wharton
Took Intro to PE, Intro to Fitness, and a minor in knowing which fork to use. Graduated summa-ish cum laude; no one remembers the summa.
Fitness
Running from term-sheets
Four disciplines, one guiding principle: whatever life throws at the deal, run it off before the close.
Running
When she isn't modeling spreadsheets, she's modeling yoga poses - heated, because why not burn calories twice?
Barry's Bootcamp
Barry's addict. She runs the tread faster than the deal pipeline closes.
Lifting
Lifts weights in the morning and EBITDA projections in the afternoon. Same count, different reps.
Heated yoga
Takes it hot, always, because discomfort in every form feels suspiciously like progress.
Hobbies
Curated obsessions
Letterboxd
Keeps an impeccable film log, mostly as proof of taste. The taste is real. The reviews are one and a half paragraphs long.
Mobile tab hoarder
Fifty-plus tabs open, because a PE associate cannot function on any less data.
Luxury minimalism
Her apartment has fewer items than a term-sheet, but each one has passed champagne inspection.
Voice-AI nerd
She talks to Siri more than most people talk to their spouses. No offense, Stuart.
Engagement
One Stuart, no deal
Stuart gets the last tab in her browser, the last rep at Barry's, and the only corner of the apartment that her minimalism cannot touch. He asked. She said yes before the term-sheet on her desk could object. It is the one deal she does not plan to structure for leverage.
The ring is on. The date is not, unfortunately, getting smaller.
Want to hear her latest deal or yoga tip?
Stay tuned - or just stalk her Letterboxd feed (katielee0).