SBJ Behind the Scenes: Celebrating the industry’s next-gen talent

SBJ’s “mega-week” of events wrapped up with two days of awards honoring the next generation of leaders in sports business.

Friday night, Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers hosted the 2025 class of SBJ’s Forty Under 40 honorees during a black-tie celebration. Host Devin McCourty and a group of past winners and well-wishers helped celebrate the evening.

Thursday night saw SBJ honor the seventh class of New Voices Under 30 at the Hard Rock Hotel in NYC. This award singles out individuals who are already bringing innovation to sports business circles, creating new products and roles or even founding their own companies.

SBJ sincerely thanks all the honorees for joining us in NYC for the awards ceremonies, especially for their families, friends, colleagues and other well-wishers that joined them for these events. Nominations for the 2026 class of Forty Under 40 are open -- please send yours in.

And SBJ thanks the backers who help make these ceremonies possible -- presenting sponsors Anheuser-Busch, TurnkeyZRG, Verizon and Ally for both events; Forty Under 40 bronze sponsor SeatGeek and cocktail sponsor E.E.P.; and crowd engagement provider CrowdSync for New Voices Under 30.

A gathering of more than 500 leaders from every corner of the industry gathered Friday night at Pier Sixty at Chelsea Piers in New York to honor the 2025 class of SBJ’s Forty Under 40.

The Forty Under 40 Hall of Fame enshrined three additional members -- Russ D’Souza of SeatGeek, Michael Melnitzky of Allen & Company and Uzma Rawn Dowler of MLB -- a distinction reserved for three-time honorees.

MLB ended up having, again, the loudest contingent of the night. The four tables were boisterous, with face cutouts for Dowler. But the group was also there to support new colleague Kelsey Philpott, who was being honored as well (he was selected while still with the Canucks earlier in the year).

One honoree not in the room on Friday night was ESPN’s Mike Foss. The longtime programming exec had to be in Eugene for “College GameDay” on Saturday morning ahead of a big USC-Oregon game. That puts the show on the air at 6am local time -- and even earlier in the wee hours for the production team -- so a tough turnaround to be in NYC the night before. Some of Foss’ colleagues held down the fort in his honor in Manhattan. Another honoree who couldn’t make the celebration was the NHL’s Kate Watson.

Cosm’s Peter Murphy and his wife made it to NYC for the event with his parents just two weeks after the arrival of their baby.

After SBJ Executive Editor and Publisher Abe Madkour offered his usual roasts that featured some hits, some groans and some misses, he handed over emcee duties to NBC Sports analyst Devin McCourty. Some of McCourty’s highlights:

• “Some of you might not know me. You might be Jets fans, you might be Giants fans. But don’t worry, the NFL is back to normal -- the Patriots are No. 1 in the AFC. The lesson? You know it’s going to be a good year.”
• “We have Andrew Hawkins here. We put up a slide of all the bad quarterbacks he played with. He came to New England in 2017. He retired; he had Tom Brady. He was like, ‘This is not for me, I’m out of here.’ And he retired. We thought it was a mistake. He’s over here, founder of StatusPro on Forty Under 40. I’m sitting here. It’s a struggle for me to get out of bed, and I’m not 40 yet, so shout out to Hawk -- he knows what he’s doing.”
• “Coming here tonight, I was excited. I was like, ‘Forty Under 40. This should be fun. Some of the best people, they’re going to be buttoned up, ready to go.’ Table 49 popped the bottle of champagne and sprayed that shit all over my table! I’m over there with David Tepper, the owner of the Panthers. What are we doing? And I was like, ‘Oh, this is going to be some fun tonight.’”
• “We’re going to go through 43 different bios. As I was reading those bios, I was blown away. So many amazing people, just a little bit of time to achieve these amazing goals. Young people are being inspired by you because I’m impressed by you. I’m inspired by you, your intensity, your passion and your growing impact to be the best in the industry and then to be the best in the world.”

Panthers owners David and Nicole Tepper were present, supporting Tepper Sports and Entertainment CEO and team president Kristi Coleman. Danny Morrison was on hand to support Will Pitts, who succeeded him as CEO of the Charlote Sports Foundation.

Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, along with former Warriors President Rick Welts (now CEO of the Mavericks) and current team President Brandon Schneider were on hand to support Joe’s son, Kirk Lacob.

The PWHL/Dodgers’ Royce Cohen had a healthy contingent of well-wishers as well, with Ilana Kloss in attendance. Also supporting Cohen were Jay Adya and Cole Van Nice, managing partners of Elysian Park Ventures, the investment arm of the Dodgers’ ownership group. Cohen received more than a trophy Friday night. The Dodgers gave him his 2025 World Series ring, Tiffany box and all. He flashed it during the ceremony.

Beats by Dre/Apple’s Aminah Charles Lukanga said her Forty Under 40 honor is particularly meaningful because she’s been reading SBJ since she was in undergrad at Hampton University.

Comcast, with VP Matt Lederer, was there with a strong table for Jessica Muir. The Legends’ table, led by President/Global Partnerships Chris Hibbs and others, was one of the loudest of the night for Jane Normansell. Octagon, whose contingent was led by CEO John Shea, was there supporting Nuvia Guzman, who has a huge stretch coming up as she’s running point for a number of marquee clients activating around the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Chatter at Pier Sixty went beyond the event. Bids were turned in for Warner Bros. Discovery on Thursday, with Paramount Skydance, Comcast and Netflix all making offers. Word going around the room on Friday night was that Apollo Global Management definitely has money backing the Paramount bid.

You may see the full class of Forty Under 40 honorees here.

This Forty Under 40 cohort -- born in 1985 or later -- showed a diverse range of music in choosing their walkup songs, with no repeat titles in the bunch.

In terms of artists, Queen, Beyonce and Post Malone got love from multiple honorees.

Rap and hip-hop were popular throughout. Former Oak View Group exec Francesca Bodie sauntered up to Kris Kross, while Aminah Charles Lukanga of Apple/Beats went with DJ Khaled and MLB’s Kelsey Philpott went with Big Pun. Wasserman’s Daniel Nunez loved him some Future, and BSE Global’s Paul Kavanaugh picked Eminem.

Some classic rock greats were on display as well. The Chicago Fire’s Dave Baldwin showed he was just a “Simple Man” with Lynyrd Skynyrd. The NBA’s Scott Kaufman-Ross embodied Ace Frehley’s “New York Groove” and the Warriors’ Kirk Lacob went for some ZZ Top, while SeatGeek’s Russ D’Souza went for AC/DC as his Forty Under 40 Hall of Fame song.

Some ’90s and early 2000s rock? Yeah, this group had you covered. It was a “Beautiful Day” and night for Haslam Sports Group exec Ted Tywang’s inclusion of the U2 song, while REV Entertainment’s Sean Decker went “Higher” with Creed and TKO Group’s Robert Hilton found “The Best of You” with the Foo Fighters.

With college football rivalry weekend around the corner, the Panthers’ Kristi Coleman showed her Clemson love (where she did both her undergrad and master’s work) with “Eye of the Tiger.”

For the Disney lovers, MLB’s Uzma Rawn Dowler wanted to be “Part of Your World” with the hit song from “The Little Mermaid.”

A crowd of 250 people attended SBJ’s New Voices Under 30 celebration Thursday at the Hard Rock Hotel in N.Y.

After opening remarks from SBJ Publisher & Executive Editor Abe Madkour, TurnkeyZRG’s Bryan Lick and Ally’s Jessica Stroupe thanked everyone for attending and congratulated the honorees before they were called up -- DJ Stoon handled the intros -- each with a personally selected walkup song.

Among those in attendance were TurnkeyZRG’s Len Perna, Billy King, Rick Alessandri and Nisar Qureshi. Comcast Spectacor had a big turnout for honoree Emily Malmstrom, with Chairman and CEO Dan Hilferty and his wife, along with Chief Revenue and Business Officer Todd Glickman and many others

NASCAR’s Brooks Deaton came in from Charlotte to support honoree Maxwell Miranda, while Innovative Partnerships Group’s Jeff Marks came to support honoree Isabel Lapus. A contingent of Range Sports execs came to support honoree Rheann Engelke, including Greg Luckman and Lowell Taub. Honoree Nick Andreos from the PGA Tour had a group supporting him as well, led by gaming exec Scott Warfield. Tom Ryan and Evan Wasch were among the NBA crew for Gregory Cartagena and Sara Hwang.

Honoree Carter Lin from IMG Tennis came after a busy two weeks supporting clients Coco Gauff at the WTA Finals in Riyadh and Ben Shelton at the ATP Finals in Turin. Honoree Grant Gilbert of the Cavaliers missed the event largely due to being sandwiched between a big Rockets-Cavs game on Wednesday night and an Emirates NBA Cup matchup against the Pacers on Friday night.

Click here for a full list and bios of the 30 honorees

SBJ has a longstanding tradition for recognizing the industry’s rising stars: All honorees get to pick their walkup music. The picks from this year’s New Voices Under 30 class range from the dulcet tones of Kenny Rogers to techno DJs and even a ... national anthem?

Spotlighting a key theme of among honorees -- the importance of mentorship -- Wasserman’s Aaron Klevan walked up to Post Malone’s “I Had Some Help.” Epitomizing why we’re all here, the Rams’ Nicole Ianni let Tiesto’s “The Business” ring through the room. Rapper Kurtis Blow’s “Basketball” might have been the ideal choice for the Lakers’ Nikhil Morar.

Plenty of oldies were on the night’s playlist as well. The PGA Tour’s Nick Andreos had a similar thought to Morar, picking a song that fit his role as the tour’s manager of gaming: Kenny Rodgers’ “The Gambler.” The USOPC’s Ellie Hanan strolled up to Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” in a nod to the 2028 Summer Games. The Marlins’ Paige Strong accepted her award to “Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie!” from ABBA. We even had some heavy metal with Benjamin Troester of Legends Global picking AC/DC’s “Back in Black.” And the most eclectic selection of the night might have come from IMG Tennis’ Carter Lin, who walked up to “Mr. Blue Sky” from the Electric Light Orchestra.

More modern tunes rocked the show as well. The NBA’s Gregory Cartagena brightened the room with “Sunflower” from Post Malone and Swae Lee. One of several DJ song choices came from Jersey Mike’s Subs Jimmy Gowen, with “Loud Places” shepherding him onstage. Emmy Meli’s “I Am Woman” escorted Range Sports’ Rheann Engelke to the stage.

The Killers got some play Thursday night as well, with USSF’s Emily Cosler and rEvolution’s Mitch Heimbach both choosing “Mr. Brightside” for their walk-up music.

The most unexpected (and patriotic) song? That honor goes to Daniel Machado of MLS, who accepted his award to the tune of “A Portuguesa,” the national anthem of Portugal. That’s certainly one way to honor one’s “distinguished forefathers.”

The industry congratulated Forty Under 40 and New Voices Under 30 class members on social media (with LinkedIn being a platform of choice), a long-standing tradition.

ECHL CEO Terry Kalna congratulated Kelsey Philpott for the work he did while when both were with Vancouver, noting Philpott’s role “in our unprecedented growth at the Canucks will never be told enough. He built an agency-style marketing [team] that was insanely talented at every level.” ESPN’s Bill Hofheimer took to X to recognize Mike Foss and Andrew Hawkins (also an ESPN analyst) for their selections. Predators President Michelle Kennedy noted SBJ was “celebrating the best of Smashville in the Big Apple” for Kyle Clayton.

Even Forty Under 40 host Devin McCourty found time to note, “We had a good time!”

From the New Voices Under 30 ranks, GMR Marketing posted congratulations for Zoe Sprout, highlighting the account director’s contributions to her work pushing “inclusive, purposeful storytelling” for brands in the Olympic and Paralympic spheres. MLS Commissioner Don Garber tweeted his congratulations for Daniel Machado, highlighting how he “embodies the innovation and excellence driving our league forward.” ESPN’s Hofheimer also went to X to laud Johanna Goldblatt.

The USOPC credited Ellie Hannan for helping “grow our Team USA fan base by bringing our fans’ voices to the center of strategy across the USOPC, LA28 Olympic & Paralympic Games and key partners.” OVG applauded Jalen Woodward for “representing the next generation of leaders redefining how brands connect with fans.” Legends Global celebrated Ben Troester for how “leadership, creativity, and forward-thinking mindset are helping redefine what’s possible in sports and live experiences.” Wasserman congratulated Aaron Klevan for his work serving their basketball clients “around the world.”

The NBA had plenty of congratulations to spread around, honoring four people -- Grant Gilbert, Nikhil Morar, Gregory Cartagena and Sara Hwang -- for “leading and inspiring the next generation of the sports business.”

And TurnkeyZRG’s Len Perna congratulated the entire class, noting his firm’s role in working with SBJ in identifying rising talent in the industry.

SBJ would like to thank each of our sponsors for their participation and support for the Forty Under 40 awards ceremony.

SBJ would like to express our sincere gratitude to each of our sponsors for their participation and support for the New Voices Under 30 awards ceremony.

What’s next on the SBJ Events calendar? It’s the Intercollegiate Athletics Forum presented by Learfield, Dec. 9-10 at the Aria Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Learn more about it here. Also: See how our event slate is shaping up 2026.