Lee Cortez
Nominee Profile
Location: Cambridge
Lee Cortez is Head of Global Benefits at Block, where he leads international teams working across benefits, mobility, and immigration, while also serving as the Executive Sponsor for the Asian Pacific Islander Community. With over 15 years of global HR experience, he has developed and implemented people programmes in 90+ countries. His approach centres on equity, care, and cultural nuance, ensuring policies are inclusive and responsive to employee needs worldwide.
As a licensed social worker, Lee’s career spans corporate, academic, and community sectors. He has worked with incarcerated youth, supported foster care programmes, and led workforce development efforts. He brings this perspective into business, seeing HR not only as strategy, but as service.
Lee recently completed his coursework for the Executive MBA at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, where he was the first recipient of the Dean’s Diversity Scholarship and elected EDI Representative. During his time at Cambridge, he led a microaggressions training initiative for EMBA students, hosted several EDI-focused teach-in panels, and co-designed an outreach event with Inspire 2 Ignite CIC, connecting young people at risk of exclusion with business leaders. He also used his Individual Project --- comparable to a master’s dissertation --- to explore how AI companion technologies can support the acculturation (adaptation and integration) and sense of belonging of migrant workers, focusing on internationally educated nurses in the UK NHS. Through this work, Lee combined research and programme design to consider how technology can improve well-being and create more inclusive immigration experiences for an often-overlooked workforce. His efforts reflect a commitment to embedding inclusion into leadership, systems, and innovation.
Originally from Manila, with roots in California and New York City, Lee now splits his time between Cambridge and London. A first-generation immigrant and university graduate, he has defied the odds faced by many in similar circumstances. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, Lee occassionally teaches as an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School of Social Work, where he leads a course titled “Workers and the Workplace,” exploring employee welfare, workplace policy, and strategies to build resilient organisations and workforces. He also founded FilamScholarship.org to support Filipino-American students in accessing higher education and serves on the Board of the Institute for Diversity Certification, helping to advance inclusive standards globally. His work reflects a deep commitment to building pathways for others, especially those navigating structural and generational barriers. Lee believes in leadership grounded in humility, integrity, and purpose as a means to drive meaningful and sustainable impact.
As a licensed social worker, Lee’s career spans corporate, academic, and community sectors. He has worked with incarcerated youth, supported foster care programmes, and led workforce development efforts. He brings this perspective into business, seeing HR not only as strategy, but as service.
Lee recently completed his coursework for the Executive MBA at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, where he was the first recipient of the Dean’s Diversity Scholarship and elected EDI Representative. During his time at Cambridge, he led a microaggressions training initiative for EMBA students, hosted several EDI-focused teach-in panels, and co-designed an outreach event with Inspire 2 Ignite CIC, connecting young people at risk of exclusion with business leaders. He also used his Individual Project --- comparable to a master’s dissertation --- to explore how AI companion technologies can support the acculturation (adaptation and integration) and sense of belonging of migrant workers, focusing on internationally educated nurses in the UK NHS. Through this work, Lee combined research and programme design to consider how technology can improve well-being and create more inclusive immigration experiences for an often-overlooked workforce. His efforts reflect a commitment to embedding inclusion into leadership, systems, and innovation.
Originally from Manila, with roots in California and New York City, Lee now splits his time between Cambridge and London. A first-generation immigrant and university graduate, he has defied the odds faced by many in similar circumstances. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University, Lee occassionally teaches as an adjunct professor at Columbia’s School of Social Work, where he leads a course titled “Workers and the Workplace,” exploring employee welfare, workplace policy, and strategies to build resilient organisations and workforces. He also founded FilamScholarship.org to support Filipino-American students in accessing higher education and serves on the Board of the Institute for Diversity Certification, helping to advance inclusive standards globally. His work reflects a deep commitment to building pathways for others, especially those navigating structural and generational barriers. Lee believes in leadership grounded in humility, integrity, and purpose as a means to drive meaningful and sustainable impact.