what does this query do?
The answer is in the bold portion of my answer. 

Starters

You have a table of Lead Managers (Lead_Managers) and a table for Companies (Company). A Lead Manager can be in multiple companies and can have multiple Lead Manager roles in one company.

Inner Query

The inner query retrieves the DISTINCT number of (COUNT) Lead Manager's  Codes (Lead_Manager.company_code) where the Lead_Manager's company code matches ...

Outer Query

... the company code (c.company_code) in the Company (Company c) table.

Result

The result should be a list of Company Codes, Founders and distinct count of Lead Managers for each given company. The Distinct will only select unique Lead Manager', or put another way: Even if a lead manager has multiple Lead Manager Roles in a company only 1 count will be made for that company.