PROFILE
Lisa Young
By Andrew King
I
f you keep current with pro audio trade
news, there’s a good chance you’ve
read some of Lisa Young’s work. As a
veteran marketing maven in the audio
community, she has written countless
words about industry pros, products, and
applications over the years in various posts,
so it seemed only fair that Professional
Sound would return the favour with a few
about her.
Currently serving as the independent
publicist for d&b audiotechnik Americas,
her most recent efforts have focused on key
products like the company’s GSL and KSL
loudspeakers and innovative Soundscape
platform.
“I interview and write articles and
press releases with key influencers cover-
ing specific tours, Broadway productions,
houses of worship, and various installations
using d&b loudspeakers within the sound
reinforcement market,” she offers as a gen-
eral overview of her job. She’s had ample
opportunity to hone those various skills
in several prominent positions inside and
outside of the pro audio industry over the
past few decades.
Born, raised, and educated in Upstate
New York, Young began her career working
in various corporate marketing depart-
ments, including those of major brands
like the Ford Motor Company and PepsiCo.
Her first post within the pro audio
community was with iconic recording
brand Neve Electronics in the early ‘80s.
Following the company’s acquisition by
multinational conglomerate Siemens in
1985 and subsequent rebranding as AMS
Neve years later, Young worked her way up
to the post of Director of Marketing for all
of North America.
“It takes a lot of time to understand
the innerworkings of audio consoles, let
alone digital consoles, but I loved learning
through the eyes of the engineers,” she says
about that formative time in her career.
From there, she spent several years as
the marketing manager for Crest Audio
before joining esteemed PR firm Giles
Communications in 1994, first as a senior
account executive and eventually earning
the role of VP in 2001. It was during her
stint with Giles that she began doing pub-
licity for Yamaha, and in 2007, she became
the independent publicist of record for
Yamaha Commercial Audio Systems (later
rebranded as Yamaha Pro Audio).
“Spending two decades as a publicist
for Yamaha provided me with so many great
opportunities,” she says. “I was initially hired
to work on the launch of the ProMix 01
digital mixer, and continued on supervising
the publicity efforts for 11 of the musical in-
strument groups. I enjoyed being involved
in the launch of new digital products and
was afforded that opportunity by the com-
mercial audio staff for major products like
the PM1D, PM5D, and RIVAGE series.”
She continued in that capacity with
Yamaha into early 2019, at which point
she accepted her current post with d&b
audiotechnik.
Some of the recent applications she
has covered on behalf of the brand include
forward-thinking Soundscape installations
in a few select houses of worship, hard rock
icons Alice in Chains and Korn opting for
GSL loudspeakers on their recent tour, and
corporate news about the company’s on-
going expansions in the Americas.
Andrew King is the Editor-in-Chief of Professional Sound.
20 PROFESSIONAL SOUND
“I’ve made many, many industry con-
tacts,” Young enthuses, reflecting on her
time in the business thus far – “many of
whom I still communicate with today, and
many of whom have become close per-
sonal friends. I also really enjoy speaking
with mixing engineers in the live sound
market. I’m married to one, so it’s great to
be able to understand their world.”
Her husband, Tom, has been Tony Ben-
nett’s go-to production manager and FOH
engineer for over 20 years, and prior to
that, he occupied the same post with Frank
Sinatra. The two reside together with their
11-year-old Maltese, Gemma, and split their
time between homes in Florida and New
York’s Westchester County. She has a one-
year-old granddaughter, Ava, who lives with
her daughter and her husband in Brooklyn.
Coincidentally, she also has two stepchil-
dren based in the same borough, making
it a frequent destination for family visits.
In her downtime, she enjoys reading
and, of course, listening to music, listing
off The Eagles, Billy Joel, and Elton John as
a few personal favourites. Stemming from
her time living in San Francisco Bay Area
while working with ITEL Corporation, she
also has an ongoing fondness for the NFL’s
league-leading 49ers.
Asked about what she’s looking for-
ward to either personally or profession-
ally for the rest of 2019 and into 2020,
her answer is simple and straightforward:
“Health, happiness, and spending more
time with Ava.”
Of course, she’ll also be plenty busy
keeping the industry up-to-date with all of
d&b audiotechnik’s happenings, which will
certainly include more on the Soundscape
front as the technology is more widely
adopted and, as has been the case thus
far, deployed in increasingly cutting-edge
applications.
So, when you’re reading about the in-
tricate details of such deployments in your
favourite trade publication, consider that
there’s a very good chance those words
originated from her office like so many
before them.