Former NFL executives point recruitment firm toward sports

From the Sports Business Journal, published March 10, 2008: Page 6

By TERRY LEFTON, Staff writer

Three former NFL executives with more than 60 years of sports marketing experience among them are combining to launch a sports-specific executive search, recruitment and career counseling firm.

The Convergence Network will be based in New York City and Connecticut. Tom Richardson is managing partner of the company, while his former NFL Properties teammates Jim Schwebel and Jim Connelly are his partners in the venture.

“There’s not much specialization when it comes to sports in executive search. Normally, if it is offered at all by larger firms, it is lumped under media and entertainment,” said Richardson, whose background includes a stint with search firm Spencer Stuart and stops at the NHL, AOL and NFL. “Dollars have increased dramatically in sports and as it’s become serious business, management is taking search and investing in talent more seriously.”

Schwebel said the new firm will set itself apart from the few sports-specific boutiques and the larger executive firms by offering a combination of industry specific knowledge and expertise within related disciplines, such as marketing, sponsorship, media, digital media and consumer products.

Schwebel was at the NFL for 20 years until 2003, last serving as senior vice president of corporate sales and sponsorship. Connelly was at the NFL for 25 years, most recently as managing director of NFL Europa, based in London.

"I don’t discount the competition from boutique and the established search firms,” Connelly said, “but inside knowledge and contacts are how these positions usually get filled, and that’s what we have to offer."

 

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