Narae Lee

Narae has over 9 years of experience in the law firm and banking industries in New York City. She is a risk manager at CIT, a division of First Citizens Bank (FCB), serving Commercial Banking businesses in managing its operational risks. As a first-line-of-defense risk manager, Narae has the role and responsibility to execute the standards and processes established by the second line of defense, who design and provide guidance on the enterprise risk management (ERM) framework. As FCB is a new Top 20 US bank, based on asset size, undergoing its post-merger integration and thus facing heightened regulatory standards, Narae collaborates with both business leads and various second line departments to create alignments best-fit for the businesses to channel risk-aware behavior and allow meeting its heightened requirements and goals.

Narae stepped into her current role in ERM in 2021, pairing her enhanced knowledge, values, and skills set by Columbia’s ERM program with her deep compliance experiences in audit response, conflicts-of-interest, and court protocol in litigating law firms. Prior to ERM, Narae spent 5 years in Professional Responsibility at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP and 3 years in the Managing Attorney and General Counsel’s Office at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP.

Narae received her Master’s degree in Enterprise Risk Management from Columbia University, and she received her Bachelor’s degree in Politics from New York University, concentrated in International Politics, with a minor in Economics, concentrated in Economic Policy.