Sam joined Oak View Group on August 1, 2018 as the President of OVG International. OVG International was established to grow the success of OVG’s core business as the largest arena developers in the world. Sam is tasked with driving revenue for the company in UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia across OVG’s Owned and Operated arenas, establishing a Venue Alliance and strategic 3rd party sales representation.

Prior to OVG, Sam was the Chief Commercial Officer at the ABB Formula E Championship from 2015 to 2018. In 3 seasons, Sam built a talented team led an unprecedented 5x’s revenue growth across sponsorship sales, partnership activation and hospitality and was a key member of the Senior Management Team.

In January 2018, Formula E made history with the announcement of the 1st ever naming rights of an FIA regulated Motorsports Championship when ABB signed a historic seven-year, 9-figure partnership.

From 2006-2015, Sam held numerous roles at AEG. Sam was the 1st AEG employee to be located in US, China and Europe. In the 9 years with AEG, Sam’s highlights included closing 4 naming rights deals for arenas and entertainment districts located in 3 countries; Mercedes-Benz in Shanghai, MasterCard in Beijing, Mercedes-Benz again in Berlin and AccorHotels in Paris.

From 2004 to 2006, Sam was the Director, Business Development for the 16 Telemundo stations and 12 NBC stations and the Director Sports Sales, NBC Sports Station Group.

Upon graduating from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Sports Marketing, Sam began his career in sales and marketing with the Anaheim Angels Baseball Club and Mighty Ducks Hockey Club from 1998-2004 and was part of the Angels organization when they celebrated their 1st World Series in 2002.

Recognitions

In 2015, Sam was nominated as Leaders Under 40, Sales and Commercial.

In 2012, Sam was honoured by the Sports Business Journal with their Forty Under 40 award as
one of industry’s most influential sports executives under the age of 40.

In 2006, Sam was named The University of South Carolina, Dept. of Sport and Entertainment Management, Alumni of the Year