Age: 42
New title: Executive vice president, WMG Marketing
Previous job: Managing director, Inter Milan Football Club
First job: Bike mechanic in dad’s shop
Education: Bachelor of arts, economics (1985), Dartmouth College; master’s of arts, international finance (1988), Johns Hopkins University
Resides: London
Grew up: Boston
Executive most admired: Warren Buffett
Favorite vacation spot: Zermatt, Switzerland
Last book read: “Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed” by Jared Diamond
Last movie seen: “Pride and Prejudice”
Favorite movie: “Bull Durham”
Favorite musician: Bruce Springsteen
Sports marketing veteran Jeff Slack is set to help lead Wasserman Media Group’s new European expansion as executive vice president, European sales, for division WMG Marketing. The new London office will be the fifth for the Los Angeles-based company. Slack will oversee strategic sponsorship and naming-rights sales and opportunities in Europe for the company. He recently spoke with staff writer Brandon McClung about his new position.
Can you explain a little about the new European expansion at Wasserman Media Group?
Wasserman Media Group has had a presence in Europe primarily through their naming-rights relationships. We have two primary clients here, the Juventus Football Club for their new stadium and a company called Quintain that is developing the area around the new stadium at Wembley.
What will be the biggest challenge in your new position?
One challenge will be how do you harness all that opportunity when there is so much to do, and the second is to execute on those two big clients that we have.
What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
When I decided to leave a job in New York to go work for Inter Milan. Italian football was quite a risk for me.
What’s your biggest professional accomplishment?
I would say the fact of generating [more than $120 million] in incremental revenue in just a few years with Inter Milan and doing twice the television contracts, which combined to total [more than $600 million].
What career advice do you have for people wanting into this industry?
A couple of things: It is a business, so if you want to get into the marketing side of it, you need to understand that it’s about utilizing sports to promote a brand, increase sales and using classic marketing objectives. Secondly, technology is continuing to make sports content more and more valuable. It’s also making it much more complicated, so you need to understand that as well.
