NEW YORK, NY - October 14, 2024: Elevate, an award-winning, full-service consulting firm supporting high-performing organizations in sports and beyond, has today announced the appointment of William DiBlasi to the newly created role of Chief Financial Officer, reporting to Elevate CEO | Chairman Al Guido. The 15-year industry leader will be responsible for the evaluation, development, and execution of the agency’s global growth initiatives and strategic priorities. DiBlasi brings over a decade of experience advising and lending to team owners, leagues, notable investors, venue developers, municipalities, universities, and market-leading management teams involved in the development of sports and entertainment facilities in the United States and Europe via his previous roles with Inner Circle Sports and Goldman Sachs.
“Willie’s extensive financial expertise and strategic vision will be pivotal as we continue to strengthen our global operations and expand our impact across and beyond the sports and live event industry,” said Al Guido, CEO | Chairman of Elevate.
"Having worked alongside Al and his team across many projects, I have long admired Elevate's creative and data-driven approach to serving a roster of clients that include many of the most important brands and properties in the world,” said Elevate Chief Financial Officer, William DiBlasi. “As investment in the sports and live event industries continues to grow, Elevate's tech-driven, analytical, and rigorous insights allow its clients to pursue those projects that drive revenue and maximize growth responsibly. I am honored to join the Elevate team and drive continued strategic investment that will deepen Elevate's ability to provide the differentiated service upon which its clients depend."
As investment in the sports and live event industries continues to grow, Elevate's tech-driven, analytical, and rigorous insights allow its clients to responsibly pursue those projects that will drive revenue and maximize growth.
The appointment of DiBlasi continues a surge of momentum for the best-in-class agency, which has made three significant acquisitions in 2024 alone. Most recently, 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. Elevate acquired Fenway Sports Management’s Consulting Group in April 2024, bolstering 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 February 2024, Elevate acquired global executive search and talent optimization firm SRI, concurrently launching Elevate Talent, the agency’s new executive search and global talent advisory practice supporting ambitious organizations across sports, entertainment, media, lifestyle, technology, and gaming.
Today, Elevate counts over 1,000 clients across sports, entertainment, live events, media, technology, gaming, lifestyle, consumer sectors and more; developing strategic, revenue-driving solutions for partners across 14 countries and four continents.
About William DiBlasi:
William DiBlasi is the Chief Financial Officer of Elevate, an award-winning, full-service consulting firm supporting high-performing organizations in sports and beyond. DiBlasi is responsible for the evaluation, development, and execution of the agency’s global growth initiatives and strategic priorities.
With a history structuring some of the sports industry’s most significant and complex transactions, the more than 15-year industry veteran has developed a reputation for his creative and practical problem solving that has been honed through leading the financial strategy for best-in-class organizations in the sports and live event industry while at Inner Circle Sports and Goldman Sachs.
DiBlasi brings over a decade of experience advising developers, team owners, leagues, municipalities, universities, and market-leading management teams investing in the global sports and live event industry. He has advised on and led financings for more than $10 billion in projects for clients including Oak View Group, City Football Group, FC Barcelona, the New York Yankees, Brooklyn Nets, Tottenham Hotspur, Inter Milan, AS Roma, Sacramento Kings, Columbus Crew, Austin FC, Orlando City Soccer Club, Philadelphia Union, and many others.
In addition to private sector work, DiBlasi has served as advisor or underwriter on more than $15 billion in projects for many public sector clients, including the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, the City of Chicago, the New York City Industrial Development Agency, the Brooklyn Arena Local Development Corporation, the Atlanta and Fulton County Recreation Authority, the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County, and Prince George’s County.
Prior to joining Elevate, DiBlasi was responsible for the global facility advisory and finance practice at Inner Circle Sports LLC (ICS), a boutique investment bank focused on the global sports, media and entertainment industry specializing in providing corporate finance services, including buy-side and sell-side M&A advisory, private capital placement and valuation.
Over his nearly ten-year tenure as a Vice President of Goldman Sachs, DiBlasi led landmark sports advisory and financing projects and was senior banker within the Public Sector and Infrastructure Banking team.
DiBlasi received his Bachelor of Arts in History and Classical Studies from the Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences at Boston College. He has served as a Guest Executive Lecturer at New York University's Preston Robert Tisch Institute for Global Sport.
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 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.
