BOARD OF ADVISORS

The advice and perspectives of these accomplished experts have helped pave our way to success over the years.

RICK GILES

Rick Giles founded the Gazelle Group in 1994 after spending eight years at International Management Group.  Giles is a graduate of Princeton University and the Stern School of Business at New York University.
 
The Gazelle Group creates, represents, and consults across sports and entertainment events.  Since its inception, Gazelle has formed relationships with corporate sponsors, teams, venues, and television networks to produce and stage successful events throughout the country in a variety of sports.  Gazelle also represents college basketball coaches – facilitating career movement and negotiating their contracts.
 
Gazelle has many areas of expertise and experience.  However, Gazelle’s core business has evolved around the sport of college basketball with such events as the Empire Classic, Legends Classic, Gotham Classic, College Basketball Invitational (CBI) post season tournament and ice hockey with the Holiday Faceoff.

KEN ELDER

​Ken has an impressive 30 plus year track record in revenue stream management and production. The last three plus years he has served as the President of Elder Sports Marketing. Ken has been responsible for the revenue management and generation for 8 Super Bowl Host Committees and generated over 35 million dollars in sponsorship revenues. Ken also has an extensive background working with rights holders in the College Sports realm. He has served as General Manager of the Hurricane Radio Network as well as an account manager with the Florida Gator Network. Ken also served on the initial College Football Playoff Staff Serving has Senior Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships. He continues to be a part of the College Football Playoff Team serving as a Sales Consultant for the past three years. Ken’s core competencies include package design, sponsorship customization, media sales, client prospecting, sponsorship fulfillment, sales campaign management, sales training, market analysis, and event promotion.

JEFF LONG​

Jeff Long is President and CEO of Pattison Sports Group, a sports property and management firm specializing in sponsorship sales, strategic planning, activation, event management under the Victory Events Series banner.  In addition, he is the Founder and CEO of Healthy Kids Running Series (HKRS), a national non-profit whose mission is to motivate kids to live a healthy and active lifestyle through the introduction of running.  HKRS is the largest co-ed youth running program in the country with over 250 locations.  A graduate of Saint Joseph’s University (English ’91, M.B.A ’05) Jeff has twenty-five plus years of sports marketing experience from working at Rutgers University, Atlantic 10 Conference and the Philadelphia Eagles.

​While at the Philadelphia Eagles he served as Director of Corporate Partnerships responsible for generating $20,232,376 in gross sales.  Jeff also negotiated the largest non-exclusive team beer sponsorship in sports (Miller Brewing Co.) history.

"My work is my life and I am very proud of what I have done," says Jeff.  Jeff is an active runner and member of Saint Joseph’s Sports Marketing Advisory Board, the National Sports Marketing Network and a Board Member for Healthy Kids Running Series.