Olympic agent and marketing executive Peter Carlisle speaks Nov. 27

Olympic agent and marketing executive Peter Carlisle, managing director of Octagon’s Olympic and Action Sports division, will be the next executive-in-residence at the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management in the Isenberg School of Management.

 

Carlisle, who most notably managed the career of Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Michael Phelps, will speak on "Marketing an Olympic Icon: Behind the Business of a Global Sports Superstar" on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 7 p.m. in the Campus Center Auditorium.

 

A member of the Sports Business Journal’s Forty-Under-40 Hall of Fame, Carlisle has represented some of the most recognizable and marketable Olympic personalities of the last decade. As the leader of Octagon’s Olympic practice, he has also guided the careers of Olympic gold medalists Aly Raisman, Apolo Anton Ohno, Ross Powers, Hannah Teter, Kelly Clark and Seth Wescott.

 

“We are excited to have Peter Carlisle as our executive-in-residence,” said Lisa Masteralexis, Sport Management Department head. “Over the past decade, Peter has distinguished himself as the industry’s gold standard in the management and global marketing of Olympic athletes. The architect of lucrative endorsement deals and creative marketing platforms, his collective body of work is impressive. We are thrilled to have him share his experiences working at the highest level of the international Olympic movement with our students, faculty and University community.”

 

“I am honored to be named the McCormack Executive-in-Residence,” said Carlisle. “Mark McCormack was a true legend who recognized that the sports business was an international enterprise. His entrepreneurial spirit helped open the doors for many of us in the industry, and his vision certainly shaped the business of athlete marketing. The McCormack Department at Isenberg has been a pioneer and champion of excellence in sport management education for 40 years and I am humbled to receive this distinction. I look forward to the opportunity to meet and interact in a collaborative and meaningful way with the faculty and students during my campus visit.”

 

Carlisle has negotiated and created successful marketing partnerships between his clients and corporations including VISA, Omega, Speedo, SUBWAY, Under Armour, P&G, AT&T, General Mills, Nokia, HP, Nike, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Disney and Hilton among many others. He has developed marketing platforms through athlete programs including Disney’s “Swim with the Stars,” VISA’s “Seth Wescott Ride with Me SBX Tour” and VISA’s “Friendship Lanes Tour.” Carlisle established the first-ever rider-led snowboarding team, The Collection, securing team sponsorships with Kraft, Post Cereal and Nickelodeon. He has spearheaded the creation of content platforms, serving as executive producer of “Unfiltered,” a groundbreaking documentary film that explored the lives and rivalry of Olympic gold medalists Phelps and Ian Crocker, and also creating swimroom.com, the first social networking site in the sport of swimming.  

 

Masteralexis added, “We are grateful to the McCormack Family for their extraordinary gift to the university, including the generous endowment of the Mark H. McCormack Executive-in-Residence. This program is about access to insider stories on the challenges and rewards of the business of sport management. It is also about intimacy — sport management and marketing innovators spending quality time with students in forums, in the classroom, in break-out sessions, at dinner, one-on-one — a number of different ways that provide both the students and our guests a chance to get to know each other as people, as well as professionals. Relationships were important to Mark McCormack, and we wanted the program to reflect his legacy.”

 

Visiting executives also participate in Libraries’ Sport Innovation Oral History Project and archive their stories. Industry insights and personal experiences will be digitally captured so that students and the public can benefit from their wisdom and influence for years to come.

 

Carlisle has been named to the Sporting News Power 100, named one of the Best Lawyers in America “Sports Law” for six consecutive years, including earning the Sports Law Lawyer of the Year in 2012. He has twice been named to the Sports Business Journal’s “20 Most Influential People: Sports Agents” list and is one of only two agents in history to win the Sports Business Journal Forty-Under-40 award three times, earning him membership in the award’s Hall of Fame. In addition, his entrepreneurial success and thought-leadership has been profiled in business books, What Makes You Tick by HarperCollins and Creating a Bu$iness You’ll Love published by Sellers.