Lawton Logan, the veteran collegiate marketer who most recently handled business development at Silver Chalice, has joined The Whitener Co. as a principal and chief revenue officer.
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Logan
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Logan will oversee revenue growth across most of Gordon Whitener’s portfolio of 19 businesses, which span the sports, media, entertainment and tech categories.
Whitener and Logan have known each other for about 15 years since they crossed paths at Host Communications. Whitener later ran Action Sports Media, which managed and sold in-venue signage for its college clients, at a time when Logan was still at Host through the mid-2000s.
Logan, who went on to work for IMG College and Silver Chalice, said they have stayed in touch through the years and often talked about working together. Logan will work with Whitener to evaluate future investment and acquisition opportunities.
Whitener’s portfolio, which he has managed with Chief Operating Officer Brett Thomason, began to evolve about seven years ago. As the portfolio has grown to include Mandt VR, Bespoke Sports & Entertainment, Brands2Fans, Pixelstar and Wrangler Network, among others, Whitener started thinking about deepening his bench and searching for ways to conduct business across the 19 companies he owns or has investments in, whether through sales, partnership marketing or property management.
“Hiring Lawton and building out the infrastructure is a direct result of the growth we’ve experienced over the last five years,” Whitener said.
In addition, Mandt VR, the virtual reality company Whitener co-founded with CEO and TV producer Neil Mandt, has added Crowley Sullivan as an executive vice president and general manager of the sports side. Sullivan, a former ESPN programmer, spent the last three years working on Silver Chalice’s CampusInsiders.com platform. Sullivan is based in Mandt’s Los Angeles office.
Logan also will hold the chief revenue officer position with Mandt, which works with college clients such as Oklahoma State on recruiting videos and other corporate clients on sales and training videos.
“VR is a hyperactive market right now,” Logan said. “You can see the VR momentum building with tons of investment. There’s a big upside in the college space. That’s really the new frontier in innovative recruiting.”
Logan will spend much of his time working out of Bespoke’s office in Charlotte, but he will also be in Whitener’s main office in Knoxville, Tenn., and other Whitener offices in Atlanta, Dallas and Los Angeles.
