Lisa Jane O’Neil, President and CEO

Lisa Jane O’Neil founded LJO Associates in 2002 to provide alternative investment firms and their service providers with highly strategic, targeted outreach programs to raise their public profile and position them for success.

Lisa Jane’s philosophy is that for alternative asset businesses to gain visibility, they need public relations and marketing programs that are grounded by an in-depth understanding of the marketplace and its influencers. To achieve this, Lisa Jane and her senior-level team work closely with clients to research, develop and deliver high-quality, intelligent messaging to LJO Associates’ global network of media contacts, analysts and industry commentators.

Lisa Jane’s background involves two decades of work in strategic planning, media relations, constituency communications and journalism. Prior to founding LJO Associates, she managed media relations for The Blackstone Group, where she worked closely with the Hedge Fund, Private Equity, Real Estate, Mezzanine Finance, M&A and Restructuring practices. At Stanton Crenshaw, a major New York PR agency, Lisa Jane led the financial services team working on corporate identity management, crisis and portfolio company communications for premier private equity firm Bain Capital and other financial services and technology clients.

Earlier in her career, Lisa Jane spent eight years as a financial journalist in Asia and Australia. As a senior editor at Bloomberg Business News, she set up Bloomberg’s Hanoi bureau, the firm’s first office in Vietnam following the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo in 1994. Lisa Jane also worked as a reporter for the South China Morning Post, The Australian Financial Review, and The West Australian newspaper. During her time in Asia, she spent a year as the South East Asia Development Officer for non-profit medical services organization Operation Smile.

Lisa Jane completed a journalism cadetship in Perth, Western Australia and attended St. Brigid’s College. Previously, she served as a board member for the Vietnam American Society in Washington D.C. and the board of Operation Smile Vietnam. She currently acts as a volunteer consultant to The Smile Train Foundation. A native of Australia, Lisa Jane is based in New York.

A. Dawn Lesh, Managing Director, Marketing Communications

Dawn has over 20 years of global executive experience in the management and execution of communications and marketing, predominantly in the financial services industry. She focuses on implementation and bringing strategy to life in the shortest possible time.
Besides heading up her own consulting firm for the last 12 years, she previously held management positions at 3i, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, New York Stock Exchange, Bank of America and Wells Fargo Bank. Dawn has a MA in Communications Research and a BA in Rhetoric. She is a published author and is Chairman elect for the American Marketing Association Foundation. She is also an adjunct professor at the Stern School of Business of New York University in the Marketing Department where she teaches Financial Services Marketing and Marketing Research.

Scott Krady, Director, Media & Communications

Scott is a senior public relations and marketing executive with 15 years experience providing communications services to global financial and professional services organizations. Scott brings a unique understanding of not only how products and services are marketed, but also what firms can do to improve their communication with journalists and the industry at large.

Most recently, he served as the Director of Marketing Communications at High Net Worth Inc., where he worked with global investment banks and asset management firms - including Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, and Fidelity Investments - to develop marketing and communications strategies for alternative investment products.

Scott previously served as Director of Marketing and Public Relations at CreditSights, a leading independent investment credit research firm based in New York and London. At CreditSights, Scott built a public relations department and helped establish the firm as a leading provider of fixed income, equity research and analytical tools among institutional buy- and sell-side investors. He significantly increased the firm’s broadcast and print coverage in both the U.S. and Europe .   

Scott’s media relations experience spans the global business media, including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Times of London, Euromoney, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Institutional Investor, Forbes, and BusinessWeek.

Scott holds a Masters degree in Journalism from New York University, where he was a Bloomberg fellow in business reporting. He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from American University’s Kogod School of Business, and a Bachelor’s in Science from the University of Florida.

Patty Buchanan, Senior Communications Specialist

As a public relations consultant, reporter and editor for the last two decades, Patty has focused exclusively on financial services, developing advanced insight into how market developments, business trends and operational issues intersect to set firms up for growth. As a consultant she has worked with multi-national financial services firms, investment management businesses and technology service providers to identify marketing messages that will resonate with their clients and the news media.

Prior to becoming a PR consultant, Patty spent 15 years as financial journalist. She covered hedge funds, prime brokerage, fund administration, private equity and financial services technology for Global Custodian. She spent six years as an editor at TheStreet.com in New York and at Knight-Ridder Financial News in both New York and London, with responsibility for breaking news, market coverage and international news analyses.

Having worked as a business journalist in both the US and Europe, Patty understands the way editors think, and knows what makes a story newsworthy. She brings this insight to her public relations clients, to create convincing, incisive communications that will help them achieve exposure and a compelling public profile.

Patty received her Masters in International Relations from St. Andrews University in Scotland and her Bachelors from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She is an active volunteer in New York-area homeless charities and an enthusiastic participant in local and regional politics.

Theo R. Bill, Creative Director

Theo is the driving force behind LJO Associates’ creative services initiatives, offering firms sleek, evocative and original designs that span multiple media. For Theo, your firm is more than just a sales pitch and list of services - it’s a mission with a unique strategy and set of offerings that can be transmitted visually through powerful images.

When it comes to imagining your firm in visuals, Theo believes in unrestricted paradigms, drawing on his experience across multiple industries to identify a look at feel that will help you stand apart from your competition. Theo has provided design consulting to firms in financial services, technology, law, government, advertising, pharmaceuticals, media, real estate and publishing. His financial services experience includes work for Butterfield Fulcrum Group, Merrill Lynch, Blackstone Group, Citigroup, JP Morgan and Donaldson Lufkin and Jenrette.

Theo’s philosophy is that financial services firms don’t have to be restricted to traditional designs and color schemes. Using elegant photography, vector images, line art, negative space and pointed copywriting, Theo creates brochures, web sites and company literature that will differentiate your firm and capture the attention of your audience.

Theo graduated magna cum laude from the City University of New York with a Bachelors degree in Communication Design. He was also awarded a magna cum laude Associates degree from Gulf Coast College.