Editor's note: This story is revised from the print edition.
Lagardère Sports has promoted two executives to newly created positions.
Jay Danzi, best known as agent to golfer Jordan Spieth, has been elevated to U.S. chief operating officer. Marc Riccio, who joined the company last year as part of Lagardère Sports’ acquisition of his experiential marketing business, Rooftop2 Productions, has been named executive vice president for U.S. commercial sales and business development.
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DANZI
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Danzi, who was president of golf consulting, will report to Andy Pierce, Lagardère Sports’ president and CEO for the Americas. Riccio will report to Danzi.
The moves create a centralized sales division for Lagardère Sports’ U.S. operations and is the natural progression from the strategic hires and acquisitions made by the U.S. division of Lagardère Group, a global media conglomerate based in Paris.
“We are continuing our growth,” Pierce said. “Our aspiration is to be a global solution for brands, talent and sports properties. … Part of that — to make sure we are equipped to handle and realize that aspiration — is to develop an organizational structure.”
Danzi came to Lagardère Sports in October 2013, a few months after Pierce was named to head U.S. operations, and brought with him Spieth, as well as a golf consulting practice. Danzi will continue to manage Spieth, 23, currently ranked No. 6 in the world. Spieth has won nine times on the PGA Tour, including two majors, since joining Lagardère Sports as a client.
Riccio joined Lagardère Sports in August of last year, keeping his title of president of Rooftop2 Productions.
Lagardère Sports conducted an extensive search to fill the head of sales position before naming Riccio for the job, Pierce said.
Having one centralized sales business in the U.S. accomplishes two goals, Pierce said. “It accelerates the business that already exists on the golf and tennis and consulting and media side,” he said. “It also gives us the ability to look at new things, new properties or new rights we should manage or sell.”
Lagardère Sports manages 300 athletes in golf, tennis, the NFL and MLB, including golfer Phil Mickelson, tennis player Caroline Wozniacki, NFL defensive player of the year Khalil Mack of the Oakland Raiders and Boston Red Sox outfielder Brock Holt. It also manages golf and tennis events, including the PGA Tour’s Safeway Open and the ATP/WTA’s Citi Open.
Lagardère Sports also works for sports properties, including representing the NFL in Germany for social media work and representing the NHL in selling sponsorships in Europe for last year’s World Cup of Hockey. In corporate consulting, Lagardère Sports counts Citi, Bridgestone, MetroPCS and MetLife among its clients.
Additionally, Lagardère Sports’ media division markets media rights globally for sports properties, including the Boston Marathon, three FIFA associations and 19 ATP events around the world.
Pierce and Danzi are friends and worked together before, at IMG in the late 1990s and 2000s. Danzi said last week that he has been wearing many hats as the company has grown over the last few years.
“Our growth has been fantastic,” Danzi said. “What this role does is give me officially the opportunity to help [Pierce] continue on the path that we were on and look at different areas for growth.”
