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Forty Under 40

Forty Under 40: Nick Baker

Nick Baker

Age: 32
Company: AEG
Title: Senior vice president, AEG Global
Partnerships
Where born: Denver
Education: Arizona State University (W.P. Carey School of Business)
Family: Wife, Heather; daughter, Olivia (8 months)

Favorite way to unwind: A day with family and friends in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
Causes supported: Gold Crown Foundation, Cancer Support Community, Amgen’s Breakaway from Cancer, Tenth Street Elementary School (downtown Los Angeles).
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve ever done: Besides fatherhood, swimming with stingrays and sharks in the Cayman Islands.
Person in the industry I’d most like to meet: Adam Silver.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: President of the Denver Broncos. The opportunity to lead a franchise would be such an honor.
2015 will be a good year if: We H-E-B (Hit Every Budget) and we find the next great category/company to partner with on a global scale.


AEG

Nick Baker runs a group that generates more than $500 million in annual revenue. It’s a number growing every year as the demands increase for AEG to produce greater income across its international platform, including a new arena under construction in Las Vegas.

Baker considers himself lucky. Ten years ago, he landed at AEG straight out of college after

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completing an internship in the company’s sponsorship division. His father, real estate veteran Ray Baker, served as chairman for the stadium board district in Denver, the governing body for Coors Field and Sports Authority Field at Mile High. As a result of his father’s ties to developing new homes for the MLB Rockies and NFL Broncos, Nick took an interest in sports business, but he preferred the sponsorship side over the financing component.

Two years ago, a shake-up in the ranks of AEG led to Baker being promoted to senior vice president. Since then, he has been principally involved in signing a $150 million naming-rights deal across 20 years for Allianz Parque, a soccer stadium in Brazil, plus breaking into new categories by signing deals with tech firms Tyco and Toshiba across multiple properties.

For AEG Global Partnerships, there’s always the need to produce volume to hit its massive budget, but at the same time, the group is getting more selective in regard to the deals it’s doing, Baker said.

“We’re not talking anybody into anything,” he said. “It’s a two-way street, and there’s buying power associated with some categories. Our retention rate has been phenomenal. Folks are not only staying with us, but they’re spending more with us, and we’re finding a new wave of partners that gets above the number we need to be.”

— Don Muret

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