Jené Elzie has been part of the Athletes First Partners’ leadership team since the agency first opened its doors in 2018. The Dentsu-owned firm was built upon a client agreement with the National Basketball Players Association, with the aim of developing collective sponsorship deals for NBA players.
Elzie joined the agency after a five-year run with the NBA, where she was the league’s vice president of international marketing. Under her oversight A1P’s brand roster has grown to include the likes of American Express, Budweiser, Sprite, CarMax and Autotrader.
“Throughout my career, the most rewarding jobs for me have been those where you’re really starting something from the ground up,” said Elzie.
Jené Elzie
Chief Growth Officer, Athletes First Partners
Born: Corning, N.Y.
Education: Stanford University, B.A., economics, and M.A., organizational behavior
That’s little surprise to those who have followed her path through the sports business world.
In 2003, Elzie joined the then-fledgling Tennis Channel as vice president of programming and acquisitions, and she says it’s still the “defining role” of her career. “I had to build a programming, a traffic and an acquisition team in the span of about a month,” said Elzie, who also negotiated dozens of tournament deals. “I wore a lot of different hats, everything from programming and business affairs to sales activation.”
The job also sparked an interest in working abroad. She spent six years guiding international distribution and marketing for Comcast and NBCUniversal before joining the NBA. — Chris Smith
More about Jené
Biggest work/life adjustment in quarantine: I spent the past 15 years traveling over 100,000 miles each year. This year, I have logged less than 10,000 … and I could not be more appreciative of the change.
Guilty pleasure: It is a pre-pandemic toss-up between weekend spa trips and post-pandemic rediscovery of bad ’90s teen dramas. I will gladly luxuriate in the guilt of either one.
Advice to my younger self: Ninety-five percent of a person’s reaction has absolutely zero to do with you and everything to do with the day they are having and the life they are living.
Sports can grow its role in the social justice movement by: Athletes, leagues, teams and fans have put the social justice movement squarely on their shoulders and have become leaders in a journey that is far from over. The next step in this movement is turning calls into action, and we are once again seeing sports lead the way through the push for greater civic engagement.
