Creative Artists Agency trekt internationale strateeg Matto Perale aan

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) announced today that international corporate strategy veteran Matteo Perale has joined the company to further execute on CAA’s aggressive growth and diversification strategy worldwide.

Perale comes to CAA from global sports leader Infront Sports & Media, where he served as the Director of Strategic Development and drove such major strategic initiatives as reorganizing Infront’s digital media business, launching its digital overlay division for broadcast, and integrating both into a fully reorganized production and service business.

James Burtson, who previously oversaw Time Warner’s mergers and acquisitions efforts, joined CAA as CFO last year and leads CAA’s corporate strategic initiatives. The hiring of Perale, based in CAA’s Los Angeles office, further bolsters CAA’s executive ranks as the company continues to transform the industry.

In recent years, CAA has built upon its diverse global platform that ranges from entertainment, sports, and corporate marketing services to venture and growth investing, investment banking, and live events. CAA has made a series of strategic acquisitions over the last two years in support of its growth plan, including its recent acquisition of ICON Venue Group, the leading Owner’s Representative and project management firm in the sports, entertainment, and public assembly industry. ICON’s portfolio of the world’s most successful venues includes the O2 arena in London, among many others in the U.S., Europe, Canada, and Asia.

We are at an unprecedented level of growth, seizing incredible opportunities for the company and our clients,” said CAA President Richard Lovett. “Matteo comes to us with tremendous strategic and industry experience to help us continue to execute on our vision around the world.”

“It is one thing for CAA to maintain its dominant market position year after year for decades, but quite another to watch it drive the industry forward in the intelligent, ambitious, and innovative way it has done in recent years,” said Perale. “I feel very lucky to join the company, and help capitalize on its entirely unique global platform. As content, sports, media, technology, and brands continue to converge, the opportunities for CAA and its clients are limitless.”

CAA’s growth has been accelerated by its strategic partner of five years, global investment firm TPG, which made a significant follow-on investment in CAA in October, 2014. CAA’s investment bank, Evolution Media Capital (EMC), in partnership with TPG Growth and Participant Media, manages a successful equity vehicle with the ability to invest up to $500 million in growth companies in the media, technology, and consumer sectors.

CAA Sports has become the dominant athlete representation firm in the world, with more than 1,000 individual athlete, broadcaster, and coaching clients and nearly double the on-field contract value of the next closest agency. The firm has also completed more than $3.5 billion in precedent-setting property sales deals for clients including Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, FC Barcelona, Red Bull Racing, the San Francisco 49ers, and the reigning National Basketball Association champions, the Golden State Warriors, among others. Through Switzerland-based affiliate CAA Eleven, the firm manages the centralized broadcast, digital, and sponsorship rights for more than 560 premier National Team Football matches in every region of the globe on behalf of UEFA, European football’s governing body. CAA, in partnership with EMC, which advises on deals focused on the media and sports industries, has brokered billions of dollars in transactions for clients including the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Pacific-12 Conference, and the National Hockey League. EMC also represents the buyers or sellers of numerous professional sports franchises and raises capital or structured debt financing for entertainment entities.

Through its various strategic marketing and consulting practices, CAA advises blue-chip consumer brands, including Diageo, JP Morgan Chase, Coca-Cola, Emirates Airline, Chipotle, and IMAX, among many others.

Prior to Infront, Perale worked in private equity for 11 years, most recently at Bridgeport Capital, where he, among others, oversaw the acquisition of Infront and the restructuring of Groupe Monitor and its subsequent merger with InfoPro, to create one the largest European professional publishers. Additionally, he led the merger of motorcycle race organizer SuperBike with Dorna. Prior to Bridgepoint, Perale worked as an investor for Intermediate Capital Group and Henderson Capital and as an operational advisor for Warburg Pincus and Palamon Capital Partners.

Perale began his career as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company in Milan and Caracas. He earned his MBA from Columbia University, a MS in International Business from HEC Paris, and a BS in Economics from Bocconi University in Milan.

ABOUT CREATIVE ARTISTS AGENCY

Leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) represents many of the most successful and innovative professionals working in film, television, music, video games, theatre, and digital content, and provides a range of strategic marketing and consulting services to corporate clients. CAA is also a leader in sports, representing more than 1,000 of the world’s top athletes in football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, tennis, and golf, and works in the areas of broadcast rights, corporate marketing initiatives, licensing, hospitality, and sports properties for sales and sponsorship opportunities.

CAA has been the trailblazer of the agency business – the first to build a sports business, create an investment bank, launch a venture fund, found technology start-up companies, create a brand marketing services arm, and start a successful growth equity vehicle, among other industry innovations.

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Contacts

Creative Artists Agency
Michael Mand, (424) 288-2000
mmand@caa.com