Peter Carlisle, Manager of Olympic Champion Michael Phelps, Coming to UMass Amherst as McCormack Sport Management Executive-in-Residence

AMHERST, Mass. – The Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at the Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst has announced that Olympic agent and marketing executive Peter Carlisle, managing director of Octagon’s Olympic and Action Sports division, will be the next featured guest in its executive-in-residence program. The department will welcome Carlisle to the UMass Amherst campus on Tuesday, Nov. 27. Carlisle most notably managed the career of Olympic swimmer and gold medalist Michael Phelps.

 

The Mark H. McCormack Executive-in-Residence program moves beyond the traditional design of an academic speaker series as high-profile sports industry innovators are immersed in campus life at UMass Amherst for three days, sharing their extensive industry knowledge and building lasting relationships with students and faculty. As one of the highlights of the program, Carlisle will deliver the Sport Innovators Keynote address “Marketing an Olympic Icon: Behind the Business of a Global Sports Superstar.” The lecture is open to all members of the Five College Community and will take place at the Campus Center Auditorium at 7 p.m.  

 

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, including Phelps. 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 createdsuccessful marketing partnerships between his clients and corporationsincluding 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 unique marketing platforms through athleteprograms 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 thatexplored 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.”

 

In addition to the Sport Innovators Keynote Address, executives also participate in UMass Amherst Libraries’ Sport Innovation Oral History Project and archive their story. 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.

 

Carlisle began his career practicing law in a traditional law firm. In 1997, he left private practice to found Carlisle Sports Management, a boutique agency representing winter sport athletes, which was acquired by Octagon in 2001. Carlisle earned a B.A. from Bates College in 1991 and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Maine in 1994. A native of Cape Elizabeth, Maine, Carlisle graduated from Northfield Mount Hermon in Massachusetts in 1987.

 

The Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management is located in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Created in 1972, and celebrating its 40^th anniversary, the McCormack Department of Sport Management is the second-oldest degree program of its kind in the world, and the largest and most academically diverse department in the nation. The McCormack Department of Sport Management is one of few sport management departments housed in an AACSB-accredited business school and has been hailed by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Sports Business Journal, and other publications as a leader in its field. The department is also home to the McCormack Center for Sport Research and Education, which focuses on research and educational partnerships between the sport industry and academia.

 

Contact: Kathy Connors, kathyconnors@cox.net, 703/980-8328