Lisa Goldman

Since 2000, Lisa Goldman has worked with Youssou N’Dour, the celebrated African musician, as a Director of his YND Foundation in Dakar.  From 2000-2002, Lisa helped to launch the YND Foundation and secured $2 million in seed funding from Hewlett-Packard for a network of Internet training and access centers in Senegal.  In March 2005, she obtained international sponsorship for Africa Live, a two-day concert to raise awareness about Malaria.   Running for two days at the Stadium Iba Mar Diop in Dakar, the line-up included many of the greatest living African musicians and was attended by more than 30,000 people.  A documentary of the event was televised globally on the BBC, Arte, TV5, PBS and across Africa multiple times.  As coordinating producer, Lisa served as the liaison between a sponsor group comprised of the UN Foundation, Sumitomo Chemical, ExxonMobil, Novartis, and the Roll Back Malaria secretariat at WHO;  and Xippi, Youssou N’Dour’s production company in Dakar.  She also organized a premiere of the film at the United Nations Dag Hammerskjold Theater.   As an ongoing board member of the YND Foundation, Lisa remains actively engaged with Youssou’s humanitarian work, interfacing regularly with Malaria No More, DATA, Unicef and other key institutions on Youssou’s behalf.

Since 2005, Lisa’s professional focus has been in consultation with Sumitomo Chemical on marketing the Olyset long-lasting insecticide-treated net.  She led development of branding and messaging campaigns for the Olyset Net, built around a real-world portrait campaign by noted photographer Maggie Hallahan.  These Olyset Net photos have been widely reprinted around the world.   Lisa manages the international Olyset marketing effort, coordinating design, PR and internet agencies in New York and London.  She produced the Olyset.Net website and technical literature, and serves as the Sumitomo Chemical representative for malaria advocacy at international meetings.  Lisa was producer of the “Footballers vs. Malaria” Public Service Announcement campaign, bringing 12 of the most celebrated African football stars on European teams to participate in a PSA campaign for TV and radio and securing on-going, Africa-wide broadcast in concert with RBM and The Global Fund.   For more information on Olyset and the fight against malaria, see http://www.Olyset.net.

In the first quarter of 2007, Lisa consulted with the AllAfrica Foundation to write a business plan for the forthcoming HealthAfrica website.   The site will provide information, community and geographical mapping with a focus on critical public health interventions in Africa.

In 2004, Lisa developed the Internet site and partnerships for Quincy Jones’ “We Are the Future” concert to help children in conflict zones around the world.   She secured partnerships with Yahoo!, eBay, Apple iTunes, Google, Kintera, and others to raise awareness and online donations.   Afterwards, she worked with Starbucks/Hear Music to produce the Live CD compilation of the concert, which raised more than $1 million for the charity.

Also in 2004, Lisa was a founding investor of Adina for Life, Inc. – a new juice, coffee and music company started by Greg Steltenpohl, who pioneered the fresh juice industry as CEO of Odwalla.  Adina Juices, a line of deliciously exotic and authentic recipes inspired by forgotten plant and fruit treasures from Africa, are nationally distributed in Whole Foods markets and other outlets.  A line of organic, low-fat Fair Trade coffees and teas was introduced in 2008.

From 1995 to 1999, Lisa was co-founder and CEO of Construct, an Internet company that fused engineering and design to create compelling virtual worlds and communities. Construct developed web applications for AT&T, CNN Interactive, Daimler Benz, Intel Corporation, Lucasfilm Ltd., MCA Records, Microsoft, Netscape, Pacific Bell, Oracle, Silicon Graphics, Sony Online Entertainment, Stanford Research Institute, Sun Microsystems, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Zentrum fur Kunst und Media (ZKM, Germany), and others.  The high creative standards at Construct led to three major design prizes for the company: Prix Ars Electronica 1999: Golden Nica, for The Difference Engine #3, in collaboration with Lynn Hershmann; Absolut Vodka: Electronic Arts Award, 1998; and Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Mixing Messages Exhibition, 1997.  Construct was acquired by Click3X, a New York based special effects production studio, in 1999.

From 1992 to 1995, Lisa was Director of The Interactive Media Festival, an international competition, gallery and exhibition of interactive media.   During these years, the worlds of high-tech computing, gaming, simulations, research, media art and networking were in collision.   At the behest of Festival Chairman Andrea Cunningham, Lisa created the plan, secured funding,  and managed the Festival from inception. Jury members for the Festival included Peter Gabriel, Eiko Ishioka, Herbie Hancock and Tom Luddy.  Motorola was lead sponsor of the event, augmented by in-kind support from Agfa, Autodesk, British Telecom, Domaine Chandon, Pacific Bell, PictureTel, Radius, Sega, Silicon Graphics, Sony, The American Film Institute, Thinking Machines, Wired, and others.  The first Mosaic web browser was an exhibit in the 1994 Festival.   The Festival team’s early work in the emergent world-wide web led to the later spin-off of Construct.

Lisa graduated with honors in Fine Arts from Rice University, and also studied at the Université de Paris IV, Sorbonne.  She serves as a director of Track Two, formerly The Russian-American Center (TRAC) of the Esalen Institute in Big Sur; and the YND Foundation in Dakar.