The Business Of Sports

Adam White is the Founder and CEO of Front Office Sports (FOS), the leading media brand covering the business of sports.

From best-in-class newsletters and social channels to news-driving exclusive reporting, FOS helps millions of business professionals make sense of where sports meets industry.

In 2018, White was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in the sports category.

White received his B.S. in Sport Administration from the University of Miami and lives in New York City.

As COO and Co-Founder, Russell Wilde is responsible for the day-to-day business operations of FOS.

Prior to FOS, Wilde held various roles in Strategy, Operations, and Marketing at Thuzio, a sports media and events company that produces a weekly live sports interview show for a Members-only audience, and Julius, a SAAS influencer marketing platform. Wilde started with Thuzio in 2013 as an intern and worked his way up to a senior marketing management role in 2017.

Wilde received his B.S. in Sport Administration from the University of Miami.

Andrew Budkofsky is the Chief Revenue Officer at Front Office Sports. Prior to his role here, he was an advisor and consultant helping companies with their go to market sales and marketing strategy. He’s been successfully leading organizations with brand partnerships and monetization, across multiple platforms including linear and connected TV, and digital publishing. He has a very strong understanding of the ever changing digital marketplace, and has always maintained a knowledge and connection to the linear television space.

Prior to running his own consultancy through the Pandemic, Andrew was the Publisher and CRO of Rolling Stone where he was charged with leading the transformation and expansion into a digital media brand.

Prior to Rolling Stone, Andrew was the Chief Revenue Officer for Digital Trends, the popular site for news, information and reviews on personal tech; its Spanish-language companion, DT Español and The Manual, an aspirational-living site targeted to males.

Before Digital Trends, Andrew honed his sales expertise through a variety of roles of increasing responsibility working on both linear and digital services, as well as at several start-ups. Past roles include the creation and execution of sales infrastructures for Break Media and earlier led the regional sales teams at television networks like Comedy Central, truTV and USA Cable Network, as well as digital organizations like Microsoft. Andrew’s career began on the agency side, managing media buying and placement for key clients including the U.S. Marine Corp and Pfizer during his tenure at J. Walter Thompson.

A native of Rockland County, New York, Andrew is a graduate of Boston University. He and his wife have two children and reside in Boca Raton, FL where – in his free time – he has mastered the art of the three putt.

Ernest Baker is the Editor In Chief at FOS, leading editorial across the business.

Before joining FOS in late 2020, Baker helped lead social media strategy at NBA 2K and worked as vice president of editorial at music startup UnitedMasters where he executed content partnerships with Apple and the NBA.

Baker got his start in media at Complex after studying as a honors accounting major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

He’s written for publications like Rolling Stone and Billboard, and worked in advertising on both the brand and agency side for companies ranging from Beats by Dre to Netflix.

As SVP, Integrated Marketing for FOS, Stephanie leads the Partnership Marketing team responsible for ideating and executing all partner programs, branded content and events.

Prior to FOS, she was principal of SC Marketing, a consulting business specializing in brand strategy, creative services, digital and social media for B2B and B2C clients. Stephanie spent over a decade at Meredith Corporation in various leadership roles, including Vice President, Marketing Solutions for the National Media Group, where she led the ideation and activation teams responsible for developing integrated solutions that tapped into the company’s portfolio of assets.

Throughout her career, she has held marketing roles at Golf Digest as well as Condé Nast’s GLAMOUR and GQ. Stephanie sits on the Board of The 1,000 Dreams Fund, a non-profit that provides scholarships and mentoring services to young women in need.

She holds a B.S. in Business Administration/Marketing from the University of Delaware.

Edgar Walker is the VP, Audience Operations and Analytics, overseeing the FOS audience growth efforts while leading analytics and product efforts across the organization.

Prior to joining FOS in early 2020, Walker was the founder and principal of The Gameplan Group, a niche sports media advisory and investment firm in Denver, Colorado. He previously spent three years at Bleacher Report as the lead analyst for the B/R App, building comprehensive strategies around user engagement, retention, and personalization. During his time at B/R, the app reached all-time highs in active users and set industry highs for per-user engagement figures.

In 2014, Walker operated a boutique sports and digital marketing firm, Surge4 Marketing, after founding — and later selling — a basketball events and media business in his home state of Maryland.

An alumnus of UNC-Chapel Hill, Walker is a Baltimore native currently living in Denver.

Shirra Preval is the VP of People at Front Office Sports.

Shirra previously worked at Comcast in the executive recruiting and talent management space, where she played an integral role in hiring and onboarding over 200 leaders and managing talent management processes for the global enterprise.

Shirra joined FOS in and has lead all efforts related to recruiting, people operations, and curating a “best in sports” employee experience.

Lisa Granatstein is the Chief Content Officer at Front Office Sports. Prior to joining FOS, Lisa was Chief Content Officer of Adweek, a leading media and events company for brand marketers. An award-winning journalist, she is also the creator and former host of The Most Powerful Women in Sports livecast and podcast.

Before joining Adweek, Lisa was the editorial director of Mochila, an early-stage content discovery platform. Previously, she spent several years covering media’s digital transformation as a reporter and editor for Mediaweek. Lisa also was a reporter for Time magazine and an editor of its tech spinoff Time Digital.

Lisa has appeared as a media and marketing expert for numerous outlets, including Today show, Good Morning America, CNN, CNBC and Fox News.