Cervantes Lee, Ed.D.  is a passionate hospitality business professor who teaches for the UNLV Lee Office of Executive Education. Since 2022, he has led the Multi-Unit Restaurant Management program at UNLV Hospitality College and co-authored a textbook on the subject, published in February 2025. Affectionately known as the “Panda Professor” by his students, Lee teaches across all levels—from undergraduate to executive education—and has delivered lectures at institutions including the University of South Florida, Cal Poly Pomona, Tsinghua University, and National Taiwan University. He is also engaged by the U.S. Department of Commerce to support the growth of Asian restaurant enterprises in the United States.

With prior principal investment experience managing over $100 billion in assets at firms such as Panda Express, CBRE Investors, and AIG Global Real Estate, Lee continues to advise several large restaurant groups, including those with store counts ranging from 4,000 to over 20,000. He also serves as a board advisor to various hospitality and technology companies, bringing real-world governance and tech-enabled operational expertise into the enriched executive learning classroom. Lee also leads the "Accelerate to Nasdaq" and the "Asia Milestone Makers" programs in partnership with the Nasdaq Center, where he coaches more than 20 enterprises across various industries at the board level.

Lee is widely recognized as one of the nation’s rare executive-level professors specializing in multi-unit restaurant management – uniquely bridging the worlds of East and West with deep cultural fluency and business insight.