REPRESENTATIVE SPORTS, MEDIA & BRAND CLIENTS/ASSIGNMENTS
PROFESSIONAL SPORTS LEAGUES
Arena Football League
Continental Basketball Association (CBA)
East Coast Hockey League (ECHL)
National Basketball Association (NBA)
PROFESSIONAL SPORTS TEAMS
Boston Bruins - NHL
Carolina Rhinos - af2 Football
Charlotte Bobcats - NBA
Charlotte Checkers - ECHL Hockey
Charlotte Hornets - NBA
Denver Nuggets - NBA
Greenville Grrrowl - ECHL Hockey (2001-02 League Champions)
Jacksonville Suns - AA Southern League
Manchester Monarchs - AHL Hockey
New Orleans Hornets - NBA
Los Angeles Clippers - NBA
COLLEGIATE RELATIONSHIPS
Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC)
NCAA
Southeastern Conference (SEC)
Southern Conference (SoCon)
FACILITY/VENUE DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCE
Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville (Jacksonville, FL)
BI-LO Center (Greenville, SC)
Boone Pickens Stadium (Oklahoma State University)
Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena (Jacksonville, FL)
Verizon Wireless Center (Manchester, NH)
CORPORATE BRAND EXPERIENCE
AstroTurf
Big Ball Sports
Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, LLC
General Sports Venue
Grand Illusion Sportswear
Reebok
Signal Apparel
Team Racing Auto Circuit (TRAC)
Umbro USA
Western Plains Pork Productions
World Dice, Inc.
XPLODE Track Systems
EXECUTION EXPERIENCE HIGHLIGHTS
Big Ball Sports
- Took over as CEO of this active wear company that was suffering from aggressive growth and shrinking margins.
- Moved sourcing off shore, rationalized the growth and reduced corporate overhead.
- Increased gross margins by 50 percent and stabilized the company.
Umbro USA
- Took over operations of the retail side of Umbro USA while Riddell took over the team side of the company.
- Restored faith in the brand and stabilized revenues which had been in decline for three years.
- Moved sourcing off shore, hired new sales force, and reduced overhead by over 50 percent.
Signal Apparel
-
Took over as President for this apparel company that was on the verge of losing its NYSE listing.• Restored stability to the company and saved the NYSE listing.
-
Shut down domestic production and moved sourcing off shore, sold two divisions, negotiated new licensing agreements, and made three acquisitions.
-
Negotiated a new $110 million bank line of credit and arranged for $10 million in preferred stock.
Grand Illusion Sportswear Corporation
- Took over as CEO of this apparel designer and distributor.
- Reduced inventories, eliminated unprofitable divisions and significantly increased margins through enhanced sourcing.
- Dramatically reduced debt through negotiating with senior lender and obtaining additional equity investment.
- Over two years, went from an operating loss of $2.3 million to a pre-tax profit of $1.5 million.
Western Plains Pork Productions Corporation
-
Exclusive financial advisor to Western Pork (owned by Chase Venture Capital Partners).
-
Advised financially distressed, large-scale hog producer on restructuring of its outstanding indebtedness, then sold company without bankruptcy to Smithfield Foods. Smithfield was content to wait for bankruptcy as the only likely bidder, but our team fielded competitive bid from regional competitor Farmer John, forcing Smithfield to pay going-concern value.
Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, LLC
-
Advised Creekstone Farms, one of the nation’s leading producers of natural and pure Black Angus beef products, and its lender owner, The Bank of Nova Scotia, on sale of majority stake to a private equity group.
-
At the time of the sale the company was incurring significant operating losses.
-
We were able to overcome the company’s poor performance by focusing on the firm’s brand potential and production improvements to be achieved through retrofit of its state-of-the-art processing plant.
AstroTurf, USA (General Sports Venue, LLC)
-
Led the turnaround of this brand in the US after acquiring the rights to the brand when it emerged from the bankruptcy of Southwest Recreational Industries.
-
Repositioned the brand through strategic development alliances with other authentic performance brands and aggressive R&D efforts based on data-driven performance and safety improvements. Introduced multiple new products, acquired exclusive rights to complimentary products and built a national distribution network of sales reps and channel partners.
-
Through aggressive marketing efforts, including the signing of Archie Manning as spokesman, took the brand from zero market share to a strong #2 position in a highly competitive industry.
TRAC (Team Sports Entertainment, Inc.)
-
Fully developed the Team Racing Auto Circuit business plan as consultant to the start-up racing league and then helped the organization raise $10 million from private investors to launch.
-
Negotiated all material contracts with strategic partners, including a long-term programming agreement with ESPN, track leases with Speedway Motor Sports, Inc. and prototype race cars with Riley & Scott.
