Brian Lessig

Brian Lessig is a Managing Director in the Strategic Advisory group focused on M&A and capital raising for Rockefeller Capital Management. ​

Mr. Lessig was previously the founder and President of Grace Bay Ventures, LLC, an advisory, consulting, and investment firm focused primarily on the financial services, sports entertainment, healthcare, technology, and blockchain industries. Selected advisory work at Grace Bay Ventures included M&A advisor to Derek Jeter, and eventually the entire buyer group, for the $1.2 billion purchase of the Miami Marlins baseball club.

​Previously, Mr. Lessig co-founded multiple businesses, and served in leadership roles, principally in the financial services and technology/medical device industries. ​

Prior to these entrepreneurial ventures, he was Managing Director in the Financial Institutions Investment Banking Group at Merrill Lynch, where he led strategic advisory assignments that included mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, as well as capital-raising transactions in both public and private markets, primarily in the asset management, specialty finance, insurance/wholesale brokerage, and infrastructure sectors. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch, he worked for Ernst & Young as an auditor; he also lectured to CPA candidates preparing to take the CPA examination. ​

He graduated summa cum laude with a B.B.A. in accounting from Hofstra University and received an M.B.A. with distinction from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.