Lombardi was born in Toronto in 1964. He attended Chaminade College before attending York University and later received his MBA from the Graduate Business School, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, Scotland.^{[citation needed]} In 1986, he founded Lombardi Publishing Corporation.

Lombardi Publishing Corporation experienced rapid growth in the 2000s and was ranked several times as one of Canada's 100 fastest growing companies by Profit Magazine.^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} Today, the company publishes financial e-letters, periodicals, newsletters, books and reports.

In the late 1990s, through his holding company, Lombardi started acquiring companies that supplied the Canadian direct marketing industry. Lombardi purchased Anvon Sale Tech Inc. and Templeman Direct Marketing Limited, two major suppliers to the Canadian direct marketing industry.^[11][12][13] The companies where merged into Clixx Direct Marketing Services Inc. which Lombardi eventually sold in 2010 to NYSE listed Cenveo Inc.^[14] In 2007, Lombardi Media Corporation made its first acquisition in the U.S. direct marketing industry.

Lombard Media Corporation became a public company in 1993 via a reverse-takeover of Golden Point Exploration Inc.^[15] In 2007, Lombardi, who was then the major shareholder of Lombardi Media Corporation with approximately 89% of the outstanding stock, purchased the remaining shares^[16] in a going-private transaction.