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The Team Unveils New Board Following Wasserman's Exit
Confirmed
In Short: The LA-based global sports, music, and entertainment company The Team, formerly Wasserman, has unveiled a new board to oversee strategy and lead its next phase of growth.
CEO Mike Watts said, 'This is an important moment for our company,' as the firm looks to move forward following founder Casey Wasserman's exit.
Wasserman formally stepped down from his namesake management company last summer when he sold his stake in the business to Providence Equity, which now holds a 60% stake.
The new board includes 11 members, all of whom will continue to serve in their leadership roles within their respective business units.
The board members are Michael Watts, CEO of The Team; Elizabeth Lindsey, global president of brands and properties; Jason Ranne, president of global talent representation; Kevin Shivers, co-president of music; Matthew Vandrau, president of EMEA & APAC; Elena Rochelli, chief financial officer; and Jon Liebman, chairman and CEO of Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
Providence Equity, the company’s majority owner, will name additional outside board members in the coming months.
The sale process was precipitated after files related to Jeffrey Epstein revealed flirtatious emails Wasserman sent in the early 2000s to close Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Davis Noell, Greg Brown, and Scott Marimow, all senior members of Providence Equity, are also on the board.
The Team, one of the biggest players in the fast-growing sports representation space, has 4,000 employees and operates autonomously under the Team banner.
What's confirmed
- “This is an important moment for our company,” said CEO Watts.
- Providence, the company’s majority owner, will name additional outside board members in the coming months.
What's still developing
- As it looks to chart a path away from its namesake founder, the Hollywood representation powerhouse The Team is installing a new board of directors stocked with leaders from key constituencies across the company.
- The Westwood-based firm, formerly known as Wasserman, unveiled an 11-person board on Tuesday comprised of in-house exec members.
- Kevin Shivers, who was promoted in April to co-president of music as part of the stabilization of that department (which had been bulked up through the acquisition of Paradigm’s roster five years ago), is also taking a seat on the board.
- And it has a large music roster that is being rebuilt after a slew of departures made waves in that space when Wasserman was linked to Ghislaine Maxwell over decades-old flirtatious emails unearthed by the Department of Justice in January.