Tom Wade’s responsibilities at the PGA Tour have increased under his new title of chief commercial officer.
Wade, a 21-year veteran of the tour’s business development and marketing, has seen his duties grow in recent months to now include television, digital, communications and licensing as well. Essentially, any unit that generates revenue for the tour flows up through Wade’s office.
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“My charge now is the commercial side of the business, driving revenue,” said Wade, 66, who worked on the brand side at Procter & Gamble before joining the tour.
Wade until last year was the tour’s chief marketing officer. He was promoted out of that role in 2013 when he was named global commercial officer, and Jay Monahan was promoted to CMO. For the following year, Wade spent most of his time working on a project for Commissioner Tim Finchem to identify the tour’s past revenue growth and to create a long-term strategic plan for future growth. Wade’s study showed that about half of the tour’s revenue growth in the last 20 years has come from its core business of tournaments and sponsorship, while the other half has come from products that didn’t exist before, like the World Golf Championships, Presidents Cup, FedEx Cup and digital.
“We’ve grown the way any company has to grow,” Wade said. “You grow from what you’re doing, but you also add new dimensions. As we look ahead, we’ll try to grow our core while also innovating new products.”
Once that project ran its course, and Monahan was elevated to deputy commissioner earlier this year, Wade again took over sales and marketing, in addition to the new responsibilities in TV and digital.
Long-term planning is now a shared duty across the office of the commissioner, which includes Finchem, Monahan, Wade, CFO Ron Price, and co-COOs Charlie Zink and Ed Moorhouse.
Wade’s team in business development includes senior vice presidents Norb Gambuzza in sales, Rob Ohno in corporate marketing and Tim Hawes in global licensing, as well as executive vice president Rick Anderson in TV and digital, and CMO Ty Votaw in marketing and communications.
Wade, who joined the tour in 1993, has such deep connections with the tour’s title sponsors and official marketing partners that he’ll stay involved “as needed.”
“It’ll be case-by-case,” Wade said. “We have a very strong team, guys like Norb and Rob, who handle the day-to-day stuff. I get involved where I can be helpful. … This just seemed like a pretty logical way to organize things and pull it all under one roof.”
