WMG

Wasserman Media Group Creating New Action Sports & Olympics Division

By Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer

Published May 14, 2012

Wasserman Media Group has realigned its athlete representation and corporate consulting groups to create an action sports and Olympics division that will specialize in representing athletes, properties and corporate sponsors active in those sports. The move was made in an effort to expand the diverse business opportunities Wasserman offers its action sports athletes such as social media and branding to its Olympic athletes and begin pushing into Olympic corporate and property consulting and sales. The division will be overseen by Steve Astephen, whose title will be President of Action Sports & Olympics. The division will be managed by VP/Action Sports & Olympics Dan Levy, who has represented Olympians throughout his career and currently represents Rebecca Soni (swimming), the Lopez family (taekwondo) and others. Wasserman Exec VP/Action Sports & Olympics Brad Lusky played a role in developing the division. Astephen said, “There’s great Olympic consulting groups. There’s great athlete management groups. But I don’t think you can say there’s a group that does everything. We are that in our space (of action sports) and we’re going to add that in the Olympics.” The division will have 46 employees with offices in Carlsbad, California; Raleigh, N.Y.; and London, and Astephen said that the company will add staff and repurpose some existing staff to work on Olympic business. Its action sports clients include Travis Pastrana and Ryan Sheckler. On the consulting side, the agency has worked on social media and marketing with brands ranging from Puma to Sunoco Fuel. It oversees sponsorship sales for USA Cycling. Levy said, “I’ve always admired what we’ve done as a company in the action sports space, the creativity and expertise we’ve developed in that world. They’re doing so much to help companies and athletes grow their business. We’ve been doing things in a similar way in the Olympics, but their creativity is going to help us a great deal with our athletes and with companies looking for help in the Olympic space.”