Lesa Ukman launched IEG in 1982 introducing the idea that businesses which partner with the sports, arts, entertainment and nonprofits their customers and employees love, outperform their competitors by a huge margin. Her ideas and ideals spawned an industry that changed marketing for good and forever.

In May 2016, after selling IEG to WPP, the world's largest marketing holding company, she launched Lesa Ukman Partnerships and for the second time in her career she unleashed an entirely new algorithm for capturing the value generated by partnerships. Now, instead of calculating the financial return for a sponsor, the new ProSocial Measurement Service calculates the social capital created by rightsholders and sponsors for the communities in which they operate."

Sponsorship began as a way to drive brand value. Later, fan engagement was added as a key metric. Now, we are entering a third stage in partnership ROI, the creation of lasting social value.

But, if we’re to expect still higher things of business and rightsholders in the future—and if the creation of social capital is to be a source of competitive advantage—we need a tool to rigorously and robustly measure social value."