about
the lemon house is a new york-based strategic communications consultancy founded by rico ripoly. rico has spent more than a decade in various communications and public relations roles across the sports, media, consumer, finance and entertainment industries. before launching the lemon house, rico served as the svp/comms at upland workshop, an advisory firm where he led media relations for the firm’s sports + culture practice. clients upland worked with included lebron james, joel embiid, rich paul/klutch sports group, maria sharapova, mat ishbia and player 15 group [phoenix suns and phoenix mercury], naomi osaka's hana kuma, redbird capital partners [ac milan, xfl], relevent sports group [premier league, laliga], f1 miami grand prix, ryan garcia, terence crawford, stagwell’s sportbeach, the springhill company, major league pickleball, just women’s sports, among others.
rico joined upland after two seasons in the nhl working with the arizona coyotes where he led the brand communications department, a hybrid, matrix-based function he conceptualized and developed. his work with the team garnered honors from marketing and advertising industry award programs such as cannes and the clio awards for the team’s rebrand, and from hashtag sports awards recognizing nhl bound, a four-part series on espn+ about two coaches interning with the team, winning for 'excellence in black storytelling'. during rico’s tenure with the coyotes, he optimized a long time relationship with renowned luxury streetwear designer rhuigi villasénor as the team brought him on as the creative director - the first such partnership at the intersection of sport, culture and fashion in national hockey league history.
prior to his role with the coyotes, rico was the head of corporate communications and public relations at cinematic music group, a record label, distribution and talent management firm holding joint ventures with universal music group and atlantic records. at cinematic, rico drove enterprise communications for both executives and talent, including actor/comedian druski and oscar-winner, joey bada$$
rico’s tenure at cinematic came after nearly three years on the nike north america communications team, where he developed and executed media relations strategies across business categories including nike women, sportswear, soccer, running, golf, tennis, and nrg/collaborations. his work with internationally renowned athletes, entertainers and designers including virgil abloh and off-white, bella hadid, fear of god, kyrie irving, comme des garçons, kith, kendrick lamar, supreme, frances tiafoe, sacai, nick kyrgios, cactus plant flea market, and many others. this work resulted in groundbreaking storytelling for the global sportswear giant during the culture and sport calendar’s watershed moments such as the world cup, super bowl, met gala, masters and us open.
work
