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Wade Martin
Wade Martin
President and CEO, Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports
Wade Martin is the President and CEO of Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports, a global entertainment business that encompasses national and international action sports tours and events, multimedia production and distribution, and a consumer facing lifestyle brand. Alli includes the Dew Tour, Winter Dew Tour, the China Invitational, AMA Motocross Championship, King of Wake Series, and the Gatorade Free Flow Tour as well as Alli Media, which creates original content, produces and presents content with partners, and distributes Alli content through a variety of channels.
Martin joined NBC Sports in the fall of 2003 as General Manager of Action Sports. In this role, Martin
spearheaded the creation and development of the Dew Tour, which launched in 2005 as the first season-long professional tour for action sports. By 2007, Martin had been promoted to President and the DewTour was recognized as the most successful series in action sports, boasting the largest media commitment, largest total viewership and on-site attendance, and a blue-chip roster of partners including Mountain Dew, Toyota, Panasonic, Sony PlayStation, Nike, and Verizon Wireless. That same year, the company announced its first major expansion initiatives with the creation of the Winter Dew Tour and China Invitational.
In 2008, that expansion continued with Martin leading the ground-breaking strategic partnership between NBC Sports and MTV Networks. The joint venture provided an unparalleled media and event platform, and led to the formation of Alli, the Alliance of Actions Sports, as the new umbrella brand and company. Under Alli, Martin developed and negotiated partnerships with leading properties in new sport verticals, created a media arm (Alli TV and www.Allisports.com), and opened the Carlsbad, Cali. office to oversee the creative, editorial and consumer products group and e-commerce business, the Alli Shop. In total, Alli manages six properties and over 90 events while producing more than 200 hours annually of original content broadcast across NBC, USA, MTV, MTV2, and FuelTV as well as multiple new media platforms and international networks.
As CEO of Alli, Martin oversees the joint venture and reports to a board of NBC and MTVN executives. Martin oversees all facets of Alli; media (programming, production, distribution) properties (owned and operated and affiliate properties) marketing (brand management, event marketing, communications), all revenue functions (sponsorship sales and service, licensing, business development, e-commerce) and business operations (finance, legal, administration).
Before joining NBC, Martin was Senior Vice President/Executive Director of the Gravity Games and oversaw Octagon Marketing’s Action Sports Division. Martin developed the Gravity Games into one of the most widely recognized action sports properties in the world.
Martin began his career in the sports industry at Advantage International, where he worked in the properties and tennis divisions before leading the creation and management of the emerging sports group. Martin earned a B.S. from Michigan State University, where he was a four-year letter winner and captain on the tennis team, and a M.S. in Sport Management from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Martin was named to Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under Forty list in 2005 and Brandweek’s 2006 Marketers of the Next Generation.
Martin lives in Hinsdale, Illinois with his wife Paula and children, Tosh, 8, and Elle, 5.
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