New York, NY | Thursday, January 16, 2025: Elevate, an award-winning, full-service consulting firm supporting high-performing organizations in sports and beyond, has today announced the acquisition of Bowlsby Sports Advisors, a search firm that drives executive recruitment, career development, and organizational optimization for collegiate and professional sports properties. Over the past four years alone, Bowlsby has placed nearly 100 diverse roles across dynamic university athletic departments spanning 23 conferences, including Northwestern University, Dartmouth University, West Point, West Virginia University, University of Kansas, University of California, Berkeley, Oklahoma State, and more. At the time of the acquisition, Bowlsby supports clients in several leading college conferences, including the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big Sky Conference, Patriot League, Ivy League, Big East, CAA, Atlantic-10, and more.
Bowlsby Sports Advisor Founder and President Kyle Bowlsby will join Elevate as a Senior Partner alongside now Elevate Principal Kaity McKittrick; and collaborate with Elevate Talent, led by Chairman Liz Moulton and Elevate Campus, led by Jonathan Marks, Chief Business Officer of Elevate Campus.
“Given the fast-changing college sports ecosystem, universities and their athletic departments are tackling new demands that require new expertise,” said Liz Moulton, Elevate Chief People Officer and Chairman of Elevate Talent. “With the acquisition of Bowlsby Sports Advisors, we are pleased to add executive search and leadership advisory to the host of solutions Elevate offers to universities. This acquisition marks nearly a year following the official launch of Elevate Talent, which has seen tremendous success and momentum; we are proud to reinforce our offerings with the addition of Bowlsby Sports Advisors.”
“At Elevate, our foremost goal is to equip and empower our university clients with the tools and talent to drive the new revenue that will create competitive, innovative, and engaging athletic programs for fans, donors, partners, students, and athletes,” said Jonathan Marks, Chief Business Officer of Elevate Campus. “The acquisition of Bowlsby Sports Advisors builds upon significant success and momentum for Elevate Talent following the acquisition of SRI a year ago; fortifying the agency’s reach, offerings, and expertise with a reinforced emphasis on the college space.”
“For over four years Bowlsby Sports Advisors is proud to have maintained its deep and diverse relationships in the university space, delivering executive search and strategic consulting solutions for over 48 athletic departments,” said Kyle Bowlsby, Executive Vice President, Elevate Campus. “Elevate’s strength and focus in the executive talent space continues to gain momentum and success; and my team and I are proud to join an effort that maximizes synergies and opportunities across college sports to generate new revenues, efficiencies, and solutions.”
Notably, the acquisition of Bowlsby Sports Advisors signals Elevate first foray into talent recruitment in the coaching and player performance ecosystem. Bowlsby joins the agency bringing a robust list of college clients, including ongoing engagements in the West Coast Conference, Atlantic-10 Conference, Colonial Athletic Conference and Horizon League.
In 2024, Bowlsby placed the following significant university sports roles: Oklahoma State University’s Head Wrestling Coach, University of Kansas' Head Women’s Soccer Coach, Marquette University’s Head Women’s Basketball Coach, The College of William & Mary’s Head Men’s Basketball Coach, Rice University’s Women’s Golf Head Coach, West Virginia University’s Head Swimming Coach, Central Michigan University Head Football Coach, Southern Methodist University’s Head Rowing Coach, and more.
Today, Elevate counts over 70 university sports clients across seven major conferences with revenue-driving solutions in partnerships; premium hospitality and ticketing strategy and sales; insights and analytics; feasibility and revenue consultation for new and renovated venues; leadership advisory and executive talent strategy and recruitment; experiential design, and more. Elevate’s clients in the college sports ecosystem include The ACC, The BIG EAST; individual universities in The ACC, Big East, Big-12, Big-10, Pac-12, SEC; and notable university programs including Penn State University, the University of Alabama, the University of Notre Dame, University of Southern California, Auburn University, University of Florida, the University of Washington, and more.
The acquisition of Bowlsby Sports Advisors follows a 2024 calendar year in which Elevate made three significant acquisitions. In February 2024, Elevate acquired global executive search and leadership advisory services firm SRI, concurrently launching Elevate Talent. Elevate Talent supports ambitious organizations across the sports, entertainment, media, and lifestyle ecosystem. In merely 12 months following the official formation of Elevate Talent, the firm has partnered with leading organizations such as Baltimore Orioles, AEG, Major League Soccer, the San Francisco 49ers, BSE Global, Angel City FC, Los Angeles FC, the Houston Rockets, NASCAR, the Portland Timbers, NWSL, and more.
In addition to the Elevate Talent-bolstering acquisitions of Bowlsby Sports Advisors and SRI; Elevate acquired Fenway Sports Management’s Consulting Group in April 2024, reinforcing its successful global brand consulting and activation practice, which utilizes Elevate’s powerful data and insights engine to create convention-defying partnerships and activations for brands in sports and entertainment. In August, Elevate acquired Zinc Agency, the market leader in developing and managing unique live, premium client experiences, utilizing dynamic talent and celebrities across the world’s most renowned sports, entertainment, and cultural events; further strengthening Elevate Experience’s position as the leader in experiential premium hospitality for fans, properties, client hospitality, corporate events, and more.
About Kyle Bowlsby:
Kyle Bowlsby is Senior Partner at Elevate, an award-winning, full-service consulting firm supporting high-performing organizations in sports and beyond. Bowlsby is responsible for providing Elevate’s college clients and professional clients with industry-leading expertise in leadership advisory and executive search. Bowlsby provides talent and organizational consulting solutions to Elevate’s roster of more than 70 university clients spanning 23 conferences, and including Atlantic Coast Conference, Big 12 Conference, Big Ten Conference, Big Sky Conference, Patriot League, Ivy League, PAC-12, Big East, CAA, Atlantic-10, and more.
Over the past decade, and via leadership roles at Bowlsby Sports Advisors and Korn Ferry, Bowlsby has established himself as one of the intercollegiate and professional sports industry’s most reputable talent and organizational strategy consultants. Bowlsby Sports Advisors was built on the foundation that transparency, synergy, and consensus building are the keys to success in lasting executive placement. Bowlsby has established an impressive track record of serving clients spanning the professional and collegiate sports industry, earning a strong reputation for client service by prioritizing clients’ long-term ambitions at the forefront of strategic planning.
Elevate acquired the Bowlsby-founded Bowlsby Sports Advisors in November 2024, which had amassed more than 100 completed searches across nearly 50 college clients in merely four years since its inception.
Prior to founding Bowlsby Sports Advisors, Bowlsby helped oversee the Intercollegiate Sports Division at Korn Ferry International. At Korn Ferry, Bowlsby focused his executive search and advisory efforts within intercollegiate athletics and professional sports. During his four-year tenure with Korn Ferry, Bowlsby served clients spanning the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NWSL, and every major College Conference, as well as multiple United States Olympic National Governing Bodies.
Prior to joining Korn Ferry, Kyle oversaw business development efforts for 4FRONT (acquired by Legends in 2022), the premier data targeting, management and media delivery platform for the sports and entertainment industries. His client list included UFC, Hendrick Motorsports, the NFL’s Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns, the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Cleveland Cavaliers, the NHL’s Florida Panthers, NCAA, Atlantic Coast Conference, Mountain West Conference, and more than 25 college athletic departments.
In addition to his duties at Bowlsby Sports Advisors, Kyle has been a speaker at the LEAD1 Institution, Women Leaders in Sports, and the Collegiate Athletic Leadership Symposium (CALS). In 2022, Bowlsby was named a 40 under 40 member by The Athletic in their feature of the “top young coaches, players, execs, influencers changing the game.”
About Elevate:
Elevate is an award-winning, full-service consulting firm supporting high-performing organizations in sports and beyond with innovative, data-driven, revenue-generating solutions. Elevate’s unparalleled combination of agency and operating experience, along with proprietary technology solutions, data sources, and software products, maximizes efficiencies in Consumer Insights, Research, Strategy and Analytics; Brand Consulting and Activation; Partnership Sales and Consulting; Executive Talent Strategy, Recruitment, Performance, and Organizational Design, Leadership Coaching, and Optimization; Creative Consultancy and Experiential Design; Property, Premium Hospitality, and Ticketing Strategy and Sales; Feasibility and Revenue Consultation for New and Renovated Venues; and more. Established in 2018 to provide comprehensive solutions to organizations across the global sports and entertainment ecosystem; today, the agency supports over 1,000 of the world’s most ambitious organizations across sports, entertainment, media, technology, gaming, lifestyle, and consumer sectors. For more information, follow Elevate Experiences on Instagram and TikTok and Elevate on X (@OneElevate_), LinkedIn, and Instagram.
