Lisa Tenner

Lisa Tenner (née Ratner) is a branding and marketing professional, president of global branding agency Tenner & Associates, Inc.

Early life and education

Tenner was born in Los Angeles and raised in Santa Monica, California. In her youth, Tenner was a member of the New York City Ballet from 1957 to 1963, dancing annually on its visit to the West Coast, under the direction of George Ballanchine. She attended Van Nuys High School, graduating in 1965, and then enrolled at UCLA, studying psychology.

Career

While in university, Tenner decided to apply for a job at several leading stock brokerage firms in downtown Los Angeles to begin getting some professional experience. Not interested in secretarial or receptionist positions, she asked to take the entry-level test to become a stock broker, eventually landing a job as a securities trader. She continued in that job until 1974, when she was offered a job as business manager of three of Los Angeles leading radio stations of that time – KHJ-FM, KHJ-AM and KRTH. In 1977, she joined a firm specializing in business management for entertainment companies, where she handled bookkeeping and managed the account of Lorimar TV, among other clients. In 1983, she joined with entertainment industry business manager Ed Silver to service top bands Toto and The Tubes, Tenner’s entree to the music industry. Tenner parlayed that experience into five years as principal in Nanas Stern Biers, a business management firm handling rock bands. Las Vegas Weekly reported that "she tallied numbers for everyone from Soundgarden and Korn to the Van's Warped Tour."

In 1991, she left to open her own firm in Southern California. She built a practice representing a wide variety of musical talent as well as producers, record label executives and talent managers. Moving to Las Vegas in 1996, she gave up her management practice to concentrate on the Emerging Artists and Talent in Music (EAT'M) conference, launched the following year, which brings together the public, musical artists, and labels to create opportunities and encourage the discovery of talent. EAT'M is where bands which include Papa Roach, Slipknot, and Leann Rimes were first exposed to the industry. By the third conference, more than 2,000 people registered and 180 bands participated. Michelle Branch, who signed to Maverick Records shortly after her appearance at EAT'M 2000 credited the conference with helping to jump start her career.

In 1998 and 1999, she co-authored a chapter of Counseling Clients in the Entertainment Industry on Music Touring Ethics with Martin E. Silfen.

Using the contacts and experience she gained in creating EAT’M, Tenner began consulting for clients in tourism, poker and entertainment. She created publicity-generating events, secured media and corporate sponsorships, developed marketing tactics and programs, developed brand-driven campaigns and negotiated television deals, as well as producing events and the shows, including programs that have successfully showcased on VH1, the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, PartyPoker Million, the World Series of Poker, Elle Magazine, the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino, The Grand Lucayan Hotel and Resort, Card Player Cruises and an assortment of others.

Tenner was named the "Event Pro of the Year" at the 2007 EventPro forum.

Nonprofit work

Tenner was responsible for organizing the VH1 Classic Rock & Roll Celebrity Poker Tournament. She coordinated the Elle Queen of Hearts fundraising poker team after learning that heart disease is the number-one killer of women in the US. In 2006, Tenner hand-selected 16 skilled female poker players, with Jennifer Tilly as team captain in 2006 and Mimi Rogers in 2007, to compete at the World Series of Poker, with participants agreeing to donate a portion of their winnings to the American Heart Association.

She is co-founder of PokerGives.org and was an advisory board member of the American Gaming Association from 2006 to 2014.

Personal life

Lisa Tenner is married to Mark Tenner, co-author of Winning Omaha 8 Poker, Mastering Omaha 8 Poker, and co-founder of Card Player Cruises, a company that specializes in providing poker rooms on cruises.