Meet the Concordia grad behind some of Canada’s biggest entertainment events

When the gates open at Osheaga Music and Arts Festival and thousands of fans stream onto the festival grounds, most people are focused on the music. Leisa Lee, BA 87, is thinking about everything it took to make that moment happen.

“What I still get excited about, and the reason I still do it, is in the 20 minutes before the doors open,” says Lee, managing partner of The Leisa Lee Group.

In those final moments, crews are clearing the site and last-minute details are falling into place. For Lee, it's the point where months of planning give way to the event itself and she gets one last look at an empty venue before it fills with people.

For nearly 40 years, Lee has worked behind the scenes as an event promoter and entertainment publicist, helping to bring major concerts, comedy tours, festivals and television productions to audiences across the country. Her projects have included Madonna, U2, Backstreet Boys, Osheaga, Disney On Ice and Just For Laughs.

It’s a profession Lee credits to a fortunate start.

‘The career found me’

Lee wasn't necessarily planning for a path in entertainment promotion while studying communication studies at Concordia. She describes her entry into the industry as a mix of timing, connections and luck.

After graduating in 1987, a former boss from an electronics store helped her land a position at Donald K. Donald, then Montreal's leading concert promotion company.

It was an unusually high-profile place to begin a career.

"The career found me," Lee says.

While many young communications graduates were still finding their footing, Lee was learning the business at a company responsible for bringing major international acts to the city. "I was lucky enough to start off at a big company that showed me right away how to do promoting at an international level," she says.

The experience became the foundation of a career that would take her from Donald K. Donald to Just For Laughs and eventually to launching her own firm, The Leisa Lee Group.

Nearly four decades after her first publicist gig, that career looks very different. When Lee entered the industry in 1987, marketing campaigns meant working with newspapers and television stations to run ads for events. Today, her team evaluates social media engagement and influencers to work with, alongside traditional media.