Executive Search
Trusted
Experience
Investors, Owners, GMs, and Executives require exceptional talent to execute strategic priorities. Identifying and attracting high performers requires experience, subject matter authority, and a trusted reputation with the market. We’ve spent two decades understanding and shaping the sports and entertainment industries with senior leadership appointments. We are proudly not generalists. We are experts in your industry.
Our comprehensive process includes psychometrics, robust reference checking, and in-depth benchmarking. We provide you with a rounded understanding of technical, managerial, behavioral, motivational, and cultural fit. The sports and entertainment industries are becoming increasingly global. Our experience in this space helps you maximize hiring potential while minimizing hiring risk.
We can further support this new hire through executive coaching and mentoring.
Recent Hires
Executive Search
Sports
Corporate
We acutely understand the challenges in the business of sport and the need to marry performance, on and off the pitch. Nolan Partners has conducted Executive Searches across a wide variety of sporting organisations including world famous sporting clubs, governing bodies, professional leagues, venues, agencies, broadcasters and the major corporate organisations involved in sport and to date we have worked with over 30 sports across the world.
Executive Search
Sports
Performance
Nolan Partners Performance Practice sources specialist technical / performance candidates from a global pool. We work with world famous clubs, teams, governing bodies, federations and leagues to identify top performance talent.
Executive Search
Media &
Entertainment
Our strong track record spans the converging media, gaming and content and Entertainment sectors, working with global NASDAQ and FTSE clients, VC’s, broadcasters, gaming operators and technology businesses.
Specialist
Not Generalist
We are the largest search firm wholly dedicated to representing sports teams, leagues, sports brands, media, and entertainment clients. We travel to nearly every major sporting event and conference. We host quarterly C-level dinners and/or summits. This gives us an unrivaled pulse on the market, builds deep relationships, and strengthens our ability to assess candidates holistically.
Global Research
Boutique Touch
Our search firm is larger than the sports and entertainment practice of every generalist firm. Yet, unlike large firms, our Parters are intimately involved in the entire search process.
Proactive
Approach
We do not post jobs on our website. Research shows that the best recruitment is proactive, outbound, and influential. We find and extract the best on your behalf.
Insider vs.
Outsider
More than 60% of our placements have been leaders from outside of sports and entertainment. We hold a distinct reputation for understanding when it’s best to consider an insider vs. an outsider.
Holistic
Experience
We acutely understand the challenges in the business of sport and the need to marry performance, on and off the pitch. Nolan Partners conducts executive searches across a gamut of world-famous sporting clubs, governing bodies, professional leagues, venues, consumer brands, and financial investors across the industry. Our work spans 29 countries and 37 sports.
Analytics & Research
Brand & Marketing
Chair & Board Members
Chief Executive Officers
Chief Operating Officers
Chief Scouts
Finance
General Managers
HR
Legal
Medical & Performance
Partnerships
Player Personnel
Retail
Revenue
Sporting Directors
Technology
Ticketing
Venue Operations
Diversity &
Inclusion
Nolan Partners is fiercely committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We ensure diversity as a search priority in our recruitment process. Indeed, we won’t present a long list of 7-10 vetted candidate unless we have at least 3-4 diverse candidates on the slate.
We begin each search with proactive research to identify executives from a range of backgrounds, ethnicities, abilities, and geographies. We outline and communicate the gender breakdown of the candidate pool when presenting our Market Research Report. If necessary, we recommend broadening the search parameters when the target market produces insufficient diversity.
Our process and intentionality garners industry leading results of diverse placements.
London
Geneva
New York
Los Angeles
Dallas
NOLAN PARTNERS IS A DIVISION OF EXCEL SPORTS MANAGEMENT
Excel Sports Management is an industry-leading, full-service sports management and marketing agency representing iconic sports and entertainment talent, marquee brands and world-class sports properties across a spectrum of integrated services.
The Nolan Partners team leverages Excel’s access and relationships across the industry for key leadership searches, to help identify and validate top executive talent based on actual working experiences. This level of reference checking significantly reduces hiring risk while equally maximizing the hiring upside.
