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Baker's daughter Olivia was born on
July 27, weighing 6 lbs 13 oz
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For AEG Senior VP/Global Partnership Sales
NICK BAKER, weekends used to be all about playing golf, dining out and enjoying the ocean near his Manhattan Beach, Calif., home. But that all changed last Sunday, when Baker and his wife,
HEATHER, welcomed their first child, a baby girl named
OLIVIA KATHERINE. The happy family recently returned home from the hospital and is adjusting to an exciting -- if sleep deprived -- new lifestyle. Baker plans to return to the AEG offices sometime next week, but for now is focused on spending time with his daughter and showing her off to all his family and friends.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD: I’m keeping a finger on the pulse in terms of what we have going on right now, but certainly all the attention and priorities are with my family. My beautiful daughter getting to meet all her family and friends -- that will be the most exciting part of the weekend without a doubt. We’ve got family arriving on Friday, including both sets of parents, brothers and sisters on both sides and various others. I was born and raised in Denver and my wife is from the San Francisco Bay area, but, thankfully, her sister lives here in Manhattan Beach and so does my brother. So we’ve got a little bit of family here but the extended families are back in our home towns.
START 'EM YOUNG: Saturday morning, we’re going to have a brunch, kind of a little “Welcome Home Olivia” brunch. It will be at our house. We’re going to hunker down at the home court this weekend and just have people come through. We’ll have many friends within the AEG family -- with as much hours as we put in we’ve got great relationships and great friendships that are built through the work experience -- so a lot of those friends/colleagues will all be stopping by this weekend. Olivia will definitely be involved with sports from the get go; there’s no way around that. She’s already well represented by AEG assets: she’s got a Kings jersey, a Galaxy jersey and a Dynamo jersey. She’s ready to rock. Our hope now is we might be able to get her at one of our sponsor parties that we’re hosting here in the fall at the start of the NHL season with the Stanley Cup. We’ll see if we can get Olivia there and make that our baby announcement: Her in the Cup.
HOW IT USED TO BE: There’s a great basketball game played on Saturday mornings -- it’s been played for 10 or 15 years -- between a group of guys in the industry here in L.A. on the sponsorship side from various agencies and teams. If we can get enough guys there’s a game that starts at 8:30am on Saturday mornings, so I usually love to start the weekend off with basketball. Then my wife and I will always try one of the many great spots to eat in Manhattan Beach. One of our favorites is a steakhouse called Fonz’s. We try to grab dinner there one night a week and enjoy the beach and relax.
GET YOUR KICKS...: It’s rare with what we do in our world that there’s not a business event to attend on the weekend. There’s so many events that we’re attending throughout our portfolio whether it’s sports, music or otherwise. This weekend is no different. We’ve got a Galaxy game on Saturday night against the Portland Timbers at StubHub Center. During the game, I’ll spend time with our sponsors, ensuring that the activation is running properly based on the deals that we have created with our partners. Typically, we’ll have three or four kind of focal point events that are taking place at one game. Hosting at Coachella or the Kings or Galaxy is all different, but the principles -- which are ensuring that the client objectives are met and that the fan experience is great -- are always the same.
CHECKING THE FORE-CAST: If there’s an opportunity to play golf on the weekend, I take advantage of that really early on a Saturday or a Sunday morning. It’s a great way to get out with friends or clients and spend uninterrupted time together. While the score that I usually put up doesn’t correlate with me playing often, I do love to golf and just love the interaction that you have. Trump National is a great course here in Palos Verdes, and they’re always great to AEG. It’s a beautiful course right on the water, so I try to get out with clients or colleagues whenever I can.
LIFE'S A BEACH: This Sunday, we’ll have friends and family going in and out with various departure times, but typically the beach is always in the cards. That’s why we live here, to take advantage of the beach, and the lifestyle that we have here is very laid back. There are some great breakfast spots within Manhattan Beach, so on Sundays we’ll typically grab breakfast at North End Café or Four Daughters. Those are great breakfast places my wife and I will attend with friends and then we’ll hit the beach. A typical weekend when we don’t have AEG events and responsibilities is to get a workout in and hit the beach. Certainly with the new baby arriving though the priorities will change on the weekends -- but for the better I’m sure.
