New York-based consulting and executive search firm Sucherman Group has stepped up its expansion into sports, which it sees as a growing market for business.
The group has worked in the media and entertainment sectors for decades, so it’s long been close to sports and has dabbled in the space in the past. But Sucherman decided to formally, yet quietly, enter the space last year when it hired former RSE Ventures executive Charles Gould to lead the sports practice. Now it’s announcing two more hires for the division.
Cuyler Holmquist, who formerly ran the U.S. sports practice for search firm Odgers Berndtson, has joined the company as an executive director who will be based in New York. Sucherman also has hired Aaron Henderson, who it says is the youngest agent to hold both National Basketball Players Association certification and an NFL Players Association license, as another executive director. He will be based in the agency’s Los Angeles office.
The company says that since it started the sports group last year, it has landed new business from the Los Angeles Dodgers, Real Madrid, Turner Sports, San Francisco Giants and Baltimore Orioles. Sucherman, which was founded in 1987, also has worked with the NFL, WWE, U.S. Tennis Association, New York Mets, SNY, New York Jets and NBC Sports Group.
Erik Sorenson, CEO of Sucherman Group, said that as the firm consults with a property on its management strategy, it often leads to executive search work as those properties figure out their needs for new hires.
“We’re big sports fans, consume a lot of sports, and because of our work in media we’ve always been adjacent to sports,” Sorenson said. “As [the importance of digital media and content rose in sports], we ended up getting pulled in on an ad-hoc basis on more things, and finally last year, both [company founder and Chairman Stuart Sucherman] and I just said, ‘We need to get serious about this — this is a big opportunity.’”
