V
eteran sports business executive
Rob Ponger has resigned as president of
Stealth SME, which was created through the rollup acquisitions of several agencies last year.
“I decided to resign from Stealth,” Ponger said last week. Ponger was named president of Stealth SME (the SME stands for Sports Marketing and Entertainment) after spending about 20 years at IMG in various executive positions.
Dorsey James and Christopher Aden, who founded Stealth SME in March 2014, did not return phone calls to the company’s New York office or emails.
Ponger declined to comment on the reasons for his resignation. In August, he said the agency was involved in a restructuring, saying, “The state of the business is, we are exploring all options and we are committed to growing this business.” Ponger declined to comment on the state of Stealth last week.
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John Cimperman (left) says he has left Stealth SME; Bill Strickland arrived in 2014 to oversee talent representation at Stealth.
Photos by: COURTESY OF CENERGY (2) |
Meanwhile, marketing executive
John Cimperman, who founded brand activation firm
Cenergy in 2002 and sold it to Stealth in 2014, was working at another brand activation firm, Match Marketing Group, last week.
“I resigned from Stealth in August,” Cimperman confirmed in an email. He would not answer questions about what happened to Cenergy.
NHL agent Allain Roy also confirmed by email “I am no long affiliated with Stealth SME.”
Stealth sports agents Tony Dutt and Todd Ramasar, as well as Bill Strickland, a veteran NBA agent who was overseeing the talent representation business at Stealth, either declined to comment or did not return inquiries about the agency or their status there.
Stealth had been in acquisition talks to acquire NBA agent Aaron Goodwin’s business, but those talks fell through.
Stealth formed an alliance with veteran NFL agent Lamont Smith, founder of Denver-based All Pro Sports & Entertainment, last year. But that relationship is now severed, Smith wrote in an email.
“My consulting relationship with Stealth ended a few months ago when they stopped paying me,” Smith wrote. “I will continue to operate All Pro Sports & Entertainment. I will also be collaborating with several former Stealth football agents, who left the platform.” Smith did not name the agents.
> AGENT MEETING: The NFL Players Association is holding a private meeting with agents this week in its Washington, D.C., headquarters, to discuss topics including agent compensation, representation agreements and agent discipline.
About 15 to 20 agents were invited to the meeting and were told to keep it confidential. Sources said the meeting was about agent regulations that were passed or discussed at the NFLPA’s annual meeting in Maui in March.
The union has previously declined to comment on the meeting, which agents said was unprecedented for its time of year and location, among other things. But last week, George Atallah, NFLPA assistant executive director of external affairs, said in a statement: “Our meeting next week will include discussions about the collective bargaining agreement, health and safety and also the agent regulations. It is important that the players get agents’ feedback on what is happening in our business, including agent regulations, which are ultimately voted on and approved by the Board of Player Representatives. We want to continue to have an open dialogue about how we can all better serve players.”
> OCTAGON SIGNS LOWE: Octagon has signed Rebecca Lowe, lead studio host of NBC Sports Group’s English Premier League coverage. Lowe will be represented by Octagon President Phil de Picciotto. She was represented by CAA.
Liz Mullen can be reached at lmullen@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter @SBJLizMullen.
