When David Lee joined PG&E in San Francisco, the company was collapsing under the weight of California’s first energy crisis. “These utility veterans kind of got us into this,” the new CFO told him, handing him an unusual assignment: act as an “anti-CFO.” Lee spent his days testing every forecast and financing plan, proposing contrarian options like a preferred-equity line from KKR. The exercise, he tells us, forced him to “think independently” and learn how to guide a public company in deep trouble.
That moment crystallized a pattern in Lee’s career—a willingness to enter complex situations and rethink accepted wisdom. From his start at Leo Burnett Company, where he learned to “walk in the shoes of the consumer,” to his nine-year transformation tour at Del Monte and later Best Buy’s celebrated “Renew Blue” turnaround, he has sought environments that reward original thought over routine expertise.
Read MoreToday, as global COO and CFO of Webtoon, Lee applies the same mindset to a different kind of transformation—the business of storytelling. He tells us the platform connects 24 million creators to 156 million readers each month, growing its English-language audience 19 percent year over year. Yet he draws a bright line around technology’s role: “Human storytellers are the best storytellers.” AI, in his view, should fight piracy and improve discovery, not replace creativity.
Across every chapter, from crisis utilities to digital comics, Lee’s philosophy remains constant—progress begins when finance leaders question assumptions and listen long enough to see possibilities others overlook.
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CFOTL: You joined Webtoon after serving as CFO and COO at Impossible Foods. What was it about this opportunity that made you want to come out of what you called “public company retirement”?
Lee: Webtoon was so compelling that I was willing to step out of that retirement mindset. I had been very happy in StartupLand, helping to launch the Impossible Burger from the very beginning—even becoming the butt of late-night talk-show jokes, which was intentional and fun. But when I met our founder, JK (Junkoo) Kim, I saw something entirely new. Webtoon is the only truly global digital storytelling hub I know of, with an evergreen source of about 120,000 episodes every day from 24 million creators.
Most of those creators have full-time jobs, yet they can share a story and see whether it resonates with 155 million monthly active users. That democratizes storytelling—it gives anyone the chance to discover an audience. It’s also a huge hit with Gen Z in the U.S.; we grew roughly 19 percent last quarter, year over year.
Read MoreWe even personified our target user—“Maddie,” age 23 or 24—who finds Webtoon more interesting than Netflix, TikTok, or Roblox because she discovers stories she can’t find anywhere else. I love that we use technology and AI as a force for good—to protect human creativity, not replace it. After Impossible Foods, I promised myself I’d only work on things that made the world better and created real investor value. That’s exactly what Webtoon can do.
CFOTL: Webtoon recently announced a collaboration with Disney, which also took a 2 percent equity stake. How do you view that partnership and what it means for your global strategy?
Lee: I’m incredibly grateful to partner with a powerhouse like Disney—it signals that Webtoon is already mainstream. Some investors or colleagues my age might not have heard of us, but they’ve probably seen one of our stories on Amazon Prime or Netflix without realizing it began on our platform.
When I asked my daughters about Webtoon, they said, “Duh, Dad—my whole class reads Wattpad and Webtoon.” That tells me we’re deeply embedded with Gen Z, and Disney will accelerate broader recognition of that fact.
The collaboration brings a rich library—Pixar, Star Wars, Marvel, 20th Century Studios—alongside our existing partnerships with DC Comics and IDW (Godzilla, Sonic the Hedgehog). We also announced that we will develop original new stories from the Disney, Marvel, 20th Century Studios, and Star Wars brands. Our ecosystem doesn’t just license content; it generates it. Imagine alternative endings to beloved franchises—The Avengers, Tony Stark, and others—written by our community. That’s the unique power of Webtoon.
Disney helps us do what’s already inevitable: introduce this platform and its creators to an even wider global audience.
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