After Wasserman’s Exit, The Team Forms New Board of Directors

As it looks to chart a path away from its namesake founder, the Hollywood representation powerhouse The Team is installing a new board of directors stocked with leaders from key constituencies across the company.

The Westwood-based firm, formerly known as Wasserman, unveiled an 11-person board on Tuesday comprised of in-house exec members. Mike Watts, the CEO who took the helm amid founder Casey Wasserman’s tumultuous exit tied to an artist exodus in February, will serve on the board.

So too will Jon Liebman, the chief of Brillstein Entertainment Partners, the pioneering management and production firm that was acquired by Wasserman three years ago in a major expansion.

Kevin Shivers, who was promoted in April to co-president of music as part of the stabilization of that department (which had been bulked up through the acquisition of Paradigm’s roster five years ago), is also taking a seat on the board.

Leaders like Elizabeth Lindsey, who oversees the brands and properties business, Jason Ranne, who leads talent representation, the U.K.-based international chief Matthew Vandrau, CFO Elena Rochelli were also named to the board, as were C-suiters Davis Noell, Greg Brown and Scott Marimow.

Providence Equity Partners, the majority investor in The Team which formally bought out Wasserman’s interest after a bidding process over the summer, added its SVP Ahana Maken to the board and says that it will “name additional external board members in the coming months.” The firm has been invested in the company since 2022 when it took the place of prior backers RedBird Capital and Madrone Capital Partners.

The Team is one of the biggest players in the fast-growing sports representation space, along with CAA. And it has a large music roster that is being rebuilt after a slew of departures made waves in that space when Wasserman was linked to Ghislaine Maxwell over decades-old flirtatious emails unearthed by the Department of Justice in January.

The company, originally founded in 2002, has snapped up many multiple boutique agencies and had 4,000 employees as of earlier this year. Its latest acquisition was unveiled just last month, when it bought Outreach Talent Group, co-founded by Emilio Arciniega, which has its main base in London.