Leslie Jonath

Connected Dots Media Creative Director Leslie Jonath has over 20 years’ experience in book publishing, creative services, and media business development. From 1991 to 2009, she was an integral part of the editorial and development team at Chronicle Books, a Bay Area-based independent publishing house known for its lively, eye-catching and trend-setting books, gifts, stationery, and other consumer products about food, art, pop culture, gardening, design, lifestyles, and more.

As a Senior Editor in the food, lifestyle, and custom publishing categories, Jonath developed acquisition strategies, launched the successful garden and craft categories; acquired, produced, edited, and project-managed over 250 books across a variety of categories, including food, pop culture, crafts, lifestyle, art, architecture, memoir, and children’s projects. She also created a cause-related publishing model for non-profit organizations, creating books like From Our House to Yours to benefit Meals on Wheels of San Francisco; Pads for Pets for P.A.W.S. (Pets Are Wonderful Support); Sand Castles for Leap (art and architecture education for Bay Area schools); Soup’s On for Next Course (job and life skills training for incarcerated women).

As a Director of Creative Development, Leslie was a founding member and co-director of Chronicle’s Custom Publishing division, creating innovative products for cultural institutions, name-brand companies and retailers. Clients included BabyGap, Starbucks, Anthropologie, and the San Francisco Ballet. The success of her work in this division led to a position as Director for Creative Services for the company’s Business Development team. As head of Creative Services, she  and her teams conceptualized, produced and developed innovative “beyond the book” services for custom clients, including videos and other digital products.

After leaving Chronicle Books in 2009, Jonath founded Connected Dots Media, working with clients in book packaging, video production, and concept and content development and production.