Susan E. Lee
Lecturer
Susan E. Lee (AR 753 – Current Trends in the Performing Arts Industry) is the President/CEO of Leonine Edutainment LLC and founder of the Broadway Education Alliance Inc. For over three decades she has been an innovator and an industry leader working on Broadway in New York and beyond. She is the architect of many cross-industry initiatives that have modernized Broadway’s business and marketing practices making the artform more accessible and relevant to its ever-changing audience.
Combining creativity and strategy, entrepreneurship and philanthropy, her work focuses on business development, experiential marketing and the alignment of education, entertainment, and audience engagement.
Prior to launching her own enterprises, she served as the Chief Marketing Officer for The Nederlander Organization from 2005-2015 where she oversaw new business development, strategic partnerships, and corporate marketing. Under her leadership the company developed and launched Audience Rewards, Broadway’s official loyalty program (now serving over 3 million theatergoers nationally); the InTheater Network (introducing digital display into Broadway theaters), BroadwayDirect.com (a web-based feature news site for branded content and ticket sales) and co-founded The National High School Musical Theatre Awards aka The Jimmy’s Awards, (which is now an industry-wide theater arts education initiative). Under her direction, Nederlander celebrated its 100th anniversary as one of America’s premier producer and presenter of live entertainment.
Before joining Nederlander, Lee oversaw the development of new business strategies and marketing services for Serino Coyne, Inc., one of the leading full-service agencies on Broadway. She expanded the agency’s capabilities to include digital and sponsorship marketing; oversaw several of the first integrated corporate partnerships with Broadway shows including Spamalot and Hormel’s SPAM and Yahoo!, as well as Visa’s title sponsorship of the Tony® Award-winning musical Movin’ Out on Broadway and national tour. She also launched Tuesday’s at 7 changing Broadway’s traditional curtain time to 7:00 pm, and Season of Savings, Broadways’ longest running industry-wide cooperative consumer outreach initiative.
In 1995, she launched and continues to oversee Camp Broadway®, Broadway’s original enrichment program for theater-loving kid. It is the leading youth brand on Broadway and the recipient of a 2016 special Drama Desk Award for its contribution to the sector. Other ventures include ShowTrans® audio translation, StageNotes® study guides and Broadway Television Network, which produced Broadway’s first hi-definition presentation of Smokey Joe’s Café and Putting It Together for pay-for-view television. In 1989, Lee became Broadway’s first Director of Marketing while in the employ of The League of American and Producers (now The Broadway League), where she spearheaded the concept of marketing Broadway as an international arts brand with the introduction of industry initiatives that are still in operation today.
Lee is a frequent guest lecture at colleges and industry conferences and served as an adjunct professor at the New York Institute of Technology prior to joining the teaching team at Boston University Metropolitan College in the Performing Arts Certificate program. She is a member of The Broadway League and the Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers. In 1979, she graduated with honors from Carlow University, Pittsburgh, PA, and in 2014 was named a Carlow Laureate for business leadership and service to community.