RSR Partners Names Head of Sport & Entertainment Recruiting Practice
April 30, 2019 – Greenwich, Conn-based RSR Partners has named Drew Cloud as head of the firm’s global sport and entertainment leadership practice.
Based in New York City, Mr. Cloud focuses on recruiting senior leaders and providing human capital advisory services across the global sport ecosystem. The sport and entertainment practice includes team members with deep expertise in human capital, board services, marketing, finance and family office.
Mr. Cloud, who joined RSR Partners last year, has more than 20 years of relevant experience. Previously, he was chief business officer for Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment and chief sales and marketing officer for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He has held leadership positions across many professional sports leagues, including the National Basketball Association, National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, where he devised and executed strategies for revenue growth, partnerships, marketing and sales and team/venue operations.
Proven Credibility
“Drew has proven to bring tremendous credibility to our client relationships,” said Brett Stephens, CEO of RSR Partners. “His depth of knowledge of the industry accelerates his ability to connect clients with the talent that meets their needs.”
“There aren’t many people in the executive leadership search space that have the type of practical experience that Drew has specific to the human capital side of sports, and we’re excited to be able to provide our clients with access to his depth of knowledge,” Mr. Stephens said.
The firm’s global sport and entertainment leadership practice is operated by respected sports industry consultants who have personally started, built or turned around complex businesses and have experience with sport- and mission-focused organizations and across a variety of industry sectors.
Veteran Recruiters
RSR Partners, founded by Russell S. Reynolds Jr. in 1993, is an executive, board and leadership recruiting firm with offices in Greenwich, New York, Chicago, Dallas, Cleveland and Los Angeles. Its specialties include: consumer goods and services, hospitality, industrial, financial services, retail, board, CEOs, CFOs, CHROs, chief information officers, chief marketing officers, sport leadership, risk, board recruiting, board advisory, management consulting, technology, innovation, leadership, assessment, asset management, family office, fintech, investment technology, blockchain, cryptocurrency, leadership assessment, executive search, talent, talent advisory, healthcare, life sciences, human capital and corporate affairs.
In recent months, RSR Partners has added several other sector specialists. The firm named Allen Shapard as a managing director and head of the corporate affairs and communications practice. Mr. Shapard has more the 25 years of relevant experience in communications, branding, marketing and corporate social responsibility. He has worked closely with high-profile consumer and enterprise organizations, including PepsiCo, Cisco Systems, Honeywell and Samsung, as well as with vaunted institutions like the Nobel Foundation, United Nations, U.S. Institute of Peace and the Kavli Foundation.
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RSR Partner also named Rebecca Holland New as a managing director, leading the healthcare and life sciences practice. She is based in Raleigh, NC. Ms. New has more than 20 years of experience advising senior management on transitional and growth, talent and human capital strategies and was previously EVP, enterprise operations, at Thermo Fisher Scientific.
In addition, the search firm expanded its asset management practice with the addition of industry veteran Michael D. Fitzgerald. In his role as a managing director, Mr. Fitzgerald is charged with launching the firm’s presence in Boston, a strategically important expansion of RSR Partners’ geographical reach. Previously, Mr. Fitzgerald was a managing director and distribution practice leader at a search firm specializing in financial services.
The firm lost momentum last year, however, reporting a 25 percent decline in revenues.
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor; and Andrew W. Mitchell, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media