A career shaped by science, singing & media
Lisa combines a background in natural sciences with classical singing and a career in media. This combination of delving into technical detail, sieving it for the necessary details, and matching it to the audience is her USP.
With well over two decades of experience on global stages, Lisa is a trusted presenter for live television, conferences, and cultural events. She is known for her ability to guide engaging, intelligent conversation.
Lisa has tackled all sorts of topics and industries, but has an abiding passion for science, space, high-tech, AI, health, brain health and the arts.
Lisa grew up in Ireland until the age of ten, when her family moved to London. In Ireland, she lived in the village of Killeshin, Laois, where her father's hobbies included Gaelic football (All Ireland U18 finals) and Pipe Major of Killeshin Pipe Band (national champions of Ireland). Through the constant support of their Kilkenny mother, Lisa and her siblings were encouraged to try anything they got the chance to do.
Education
Lisa chose to study sciences as she felt, with almost every other subject, one could develop it later in life, or in parallel. At Cambridge University she studied chemistry, geology, physics & maths as part of the Natural Sciences Tripos. Lisa specialised in chemistry for her Masters, came second in her year and earned a double first.
Despite securing numerous Ph.D. places, Lisa took a gap year to work at the GlaxoSmithKline lab based within the Cambridge Chemistry department at the time, but during that same year got the chance to work at Sky News. There she remained for a decade.
Lisa's dedication and respect for science remains, especially encouraging females into STEM subjects and to inspire young minds. She remains an author and science consultant on many children's science books, working mostly with Dorling Kindersley, Penguin Random House publishing.
Lisa has worked with The Royal Society, opened Science Week Ireland and given talks & demonstrations at the Cheltenham Science Festival, U.K.
In Europe she covers many science, space, health and brain events.
Music
Lisa started playing tin whistle like most children in Ireland, and then added piano and piano accordion. When her family moved to London, Lisa kept up piano, adding singing and violin.
Lisa has a licentiate with distinction from Trinity College London in Voice Performance, Premier Prix and Superior in classical singing from Conservatoire du Nord, Luxembourg. She also returned to playing piano when she lived in Abu Dhabi under the tutorship of pianist Jordan Rashkov.
In London, Lisa sang with the BBC Symphony Chorus for 15 years. She also sang with Cambridge University Musical Society. In Abu Dhabi she sang with three groups ranging from jazz to madrigal a cappella.
Media
Lisa started working at Sky News directly after studying Natural Sciences at Cambridge. She remained there for ten years before moving to Abu Dhabi.
Since then, she has appeared on international TV and radio stations and continues to work across traditional, digital and podcast formats.
2000-2010
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Sky News London
2000 - 2010
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BBC
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Sky News Ireland
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RTE Ireland
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Channel 4 UK
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Fox News USA
2010-2012
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Abu Dhabi - wrote for The National weekend magazine
2017 - Current
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Co-creator of RTL Today, idea to inception.
RTL
On moving to Luxembourg, Lisa co-founded RTL Today which is now the biggest English news platform in the country. She then went on to develop the first long-form podcast interview series in English from Luxembourg, which is now available with video on RTL Play and Today radio.
