About Us

The distance between Barrington and Beijing is shrinking, thanks to Catherine Lee. The founder of CDL Associates, an international communications consulting firm, Lee has spent the past few years commuting between her Barrington home and projects in the Chinese capital. How does she make it through the flights? "I think about the luxury of not having to answer phone calls for 17 hours," she laughs. "Then I reward myself with a trashy best-seller."

The mother of four grown children, Lee went back to work 11 years ago after a 19-year hiatus raising her family. She started as a consultant to Motorola and BP Amoco, the companies that first sent her to Asia. "No matter what the assignment, I always say, 'I feel comfortable with that,' then worry later about how much work it will be," she says. Her work has since taken her to Korea, Eastern Europe and South America.

This year, Lee will be opening a Beijing office to help other American companies do business in Asia. (She knows the pitfalls well - opening the office took two years of negotiations.) Along the way, she's learned the social skills that make a difference: how to hold chopsticks and how to hand over a business card (with both hands). "Your awkwardness is what shows respect," she says. "You're willing to try it no matter how clumsy you look. America's competitive edge has made us strong, but to develop relationships in the rest of the world, we have to become vulnerable."