Driven by the then-radical idea that businesses that partner with the things people love—sports, music, festivals and nonprofit causes—vastly outperform competitors, she founded IEG (sponsorship.com) in 1982. Her ideas caught the imagination of the business world, giving rise to an industry now worth more than $85 billion. In 2006 she sold IEG to WPP, the world’s largest advertising, marketing and communications services group.

Lesa is an avid champion of the industry and a keen observer of sponsorship’s broader impact on society. This includes expanding the notion of ROI to incorporate social as well as financial outcomes. For over three decades she has piloted the annual IEG Conference, which remains a must-attend event for professionals seeking to make the most of their sponsorship relationships.

She coined the term “Corporate Social Opportunity” to supplant “Corporate Social Responsibility”, reflecting her belief that value is created when “doing good” is embedded in a company’s DNA rather than limited to departments designated for philanthropy or community affairs.

Lesa is also a professor at Northwestern University’s School of Professional Studies, where she teaches Sponsorship, Sports & Entertainment Marketing.

In May 2016, Lesa launched a new venture, Lesa Ukman Partnerships. Its first offering is the ProSocial Valuation Service® (prosocialvaluation.com), an innovative methodology to bring social capital into partnership valuation. This situates sponsorship relationships in our current dynamic environment—a marketplace in which purpose, passion and community are in high demand. Unlike ROI analytics, which calculate financial return for the sponsor, her new service will measure the social value generated by partnership activations.

“Brands and rightsholders need to understand the social value created by their partnerships in the same way they measure profits generated. This enables employees to determine what initiatives they want to volunteer for, and for brands to understand where to invest their dollars for the biggest social impact and what to avoid as inauthentic to their customers.”

Lesa is a sought-after keynote speaker and serves on various boards.

In addition to his entrepreneurial and business activities, John maintains an interest in university research and knowledge exchange practices. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Centre for Practice and Healthcare Innovation, Entrepreneur in Residence in the Faculty of Health Sciences, guest lecturer at Trinity College Business School, and a member of the Knowledge Transfer & Innovation Committee, Trinity College Dublin.

John qualified as a doctor from Trinity College Dublin, is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and also holds his United States Medical Licensing exams. He maintains a keen interest in clinical medicine and has had several publications in medical journals. After medicine John graduated first in his class from the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Business Incubator Programme, graduated with distinction from the DIT business school with a post graduate diploma in International Selling, and won the Docklands Innovation Park lead entrepreneur award.

More recently John completed the Strategic Management of Regulatory & Enforcement Agencies Program, with Harvard Kennedy School, and the Creating Shared Value Program with Harvard Business School, in addition to post-graduate executive education programmes in innovation and medical entrepreneurship at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford Medical School, the Stanford d.school, Harvard Business School, and IESE Business School.

John was recently selected to participate in the Enterprise Ireland (EI) Leadership for Growth Program. His company, ASL, completed the EI Innovation for Growth Program with the Irish Management Institute and MIT Sloan School of Management. In the same year ASL won the American Chamber of Commerce Innovation Award. John was awarded a US Congressional citation by Congressman Brendan Boyle for his collaboration with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHoP), culminating in successful enhancement of an asthma intervention and education project.

John is on the Board of Industry Research and Development Group (IRDG), and a Member of the Innovator Circle, Social Innovation Fund Ireland, the Entrepreneurship Society Working Group of the Royal Dublin Society (RDS), the Institute of Directors, the Royal Academy of Medicine, and of the vibrant life sciences innovation network in Ireland collaborating with Enterprise Ireland, Science Foundation Ireland.

As an expert in healthcare entrepreneurship John works with health care entrepreneurs, professional managers, and business owners in life sciences, biotechnology, and medical device sectors to develop strategies to build profitable businesses, clarify their business models for scalable growth, and ultimately improve lives.