Seth Jacobs
Age: 39
Company: CAA Sports
Title: Executive, CAA Sports Consulting
Where born: Rochester, N.Y.
Education: University of Michigan (B.A., English)
Family: Wife, Dina; children Noah (6), James (4) and Ben (2)
Favorite way to unwind: A beer and a game.
Causes supported: A variety, including March of Dimes, Children International, and local education/synagogue.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve ever done: Traveling to Morocco for 10 days after studying abroad in Spain.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: Steve Pamon at JPMorgan Chase. It would just be fun to do the client/agency role reversal for a day.
2015 will be a good year if: It keeps up the momentum the way it has started both personally and professionally.
My fellow Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that I: Have no secrets.
CAA SPORTSome people are big idea people; others are good at paying attention to the smallest details. Seth Jacobs does both — consistently and effectively.
“He has always been our secret weapon, the guy behind the scenes who has been killing it,” said Greg Luckman, who heads up CAA Sports Consulting and is Jacobs’ boss. “In this business, our product is literally our people. He
{podcast}
SBJ Podcast:
Forty Under 40 editor Mark Mensheha and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour discuss this year's class, some of the more interesting stories in it and how the selection process works.
consistently provides value to his clients and his colleagues with a potent combination of intellect, creativity and follow-through. He has a genuine passion and understanding for brands and he gets the entire picture. Not just the little things, not just the big picture; he sees the entire picture.”
Luckman started CAA Sports’ corporate consulting business from scratch when CAA hired him away from GroupM ESP in 2011. A year later, CAA Sports landed JPMorgan Chase as a client. Luckman looked back to GroupM and hired Jacobs to come aboard at CAA Sports to oversee the new account. It’s an account that incorporates sporting events and properties worldwide.
“[JPMorgan Chase] became a client right before I joined,” Jacobs said. “Since then, we helped them set an overall strategy to assess and value all the deals in their portfolio. They didn’t have a centralized sponsorship team.”
The consulting group now has 30 corporations as clients, and Jacobs has been instrumental in landing new accounts, including deals with Bose, StubHub, Emirates and Time Warner Cable. He also played a critical role in CAA Sports’ acquisition last year of PGW, an experiential marketing firm with 165 employees.
Luckman calls Jacobs “a triple threat,” someone who is an expert in client service, business development and organizational leadership. “There are a lot of people who talk the talk in this industry,” Luckman said. “But [Jacobs] gets things done.”
— Liz Mullen
