Partnership Perspectives - James Jordan

By Curtis Walker, Vice President at TurnkeyZRG

In February, TurnkeyZRG was fortunate to welcome James Jordan to our Marketing Partnerships division to help lead search and recruitment across all corporate partnership related roles (sales, strategy and activation). James brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to TurnkeyZRG after spending several years as a practitioner in the sports and entertainment industry as both a strategist and seller. James has spent valuable time in league, media property, agency, and team property; all of which contribute to his approach in being able to identify and evaluate the best talent across the partnership landscape. Read James’ story below to learn more about his background, approach, and why he made the transition over to executive search.

James and his wife, Jen

For those who don’t know you, who is James Jordan?

While I hope my answer to this question continues to get richer and more colorful by the day, there are some core components of who I am that will never change. At my core, I am an empathetic, ambitious, and motivated individual that is not afraid to take risks in the pursuit of personal and professional evolution.

My family, friends, and support system, alongside the trust that I have in my intuition, has provided the comfort I have needed along the way to make life-changing decisions that have shaped my journey (e.g., moving to the USA alone at age 18, changing careers, etc.).

I am a big believer in focusing on what you can control, and finding a sense of calm in the understanding that there will always be elements that are outside of your control. I try to navigate life with a focus toward always making the best decisions I can with the information I have, and then giving everything to create the outcome that I envisioned – I have found that when this approach is taken, a little thing called luck often finds its way into the equation.

Early in your career, you carved out strategic partnerships as the lane you wanted to be in. Why was it important to you to establish yourself on this side of the industry?

I knew as an undergraduate student that I wanted to pursue a career in sports marketing, but at that time was not able to pinpoint exactly what it was within the world of sports marketing that I wanted to chase.

After graduation I moved to NYC to intern with Major League Soccer at their league office, and the group that I joined was the MLS/SUM partnership sales team. This was the first time I was truly exposed to corporate partnerships and the ingredients that form a fully integrated sports partnership. The art and strategy behind the sale, the relationship building, the storytelling, the authentic integration and alignment of brands, these were all pieces that I enjoyed and that led to my decision to work towards a career building strategic brand partnerships on the biggest stage.

You’ve worked in league, agency, and team property on the strategy and sales side. What experience(s) do you value most? Why?

The first would be the experience I had interning at the MLS league office in 2014. The reason it is the most valuable is because all that has followed for me professionally has been a direct result of what I learned, the people I met, and the exposure I was afforded during the 9 months I was there. Had this not been the amazing experience that it was, partnership sales may never have been the career path I pursued.

The second experience is moving to Los Angeles and playing a small role in the opening of SoFi Stadium & Hollywood Park. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity to imagine, develop, and open a project that has set a new global standard. A 300-acre campus that brings together world class live entertainment venues (including a $5B stadium), residential developments, a retail district, a commercial district, along with 25-acres of community park space; this is a project that would be a phenomenal feat in any market, but for it to be in the heart of Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, makes it that much more special.

A more personal experience that I will mention was taking my Mum to a Rams game at SoFi Stadium last season. She was visiting my wife and I in LA from London, and this was the first time she was able to see the stadium that I had been telling her about for years! To be able to show her what I had been working on for so long, and to take her on the field for a picture with my Super Bowl ring on her finger was a moment that will stay with me for a long time.

You transitioned over to TurnkeyZRG a little over a month ago. What factors contributed to your motivation to move over into executive search? How have you enjoyed the transition?

There were two key factors that led to my transition to TurnkeyZRG and the world of executive search.

The first was my motivation to advocate on behalf of talented diverse candidates pursuing their professional dreams within the partnerships space. While there is more focus than ever on the intentionality behind the recruitment of diverse talent within the sports industry, it is no secret that there is still a long way for us to go.

The second factor was the value I believed I could bring to TurnkeyZRG. I am fortunate to have worked alongside some of the best partnership talent in the industry. I am also fortunate to have worked for some of the biggest sports and media properties in the two biggest media markets in North America (NYC & LA). Having seen what it takes to be successful at the highest level and on the biggest stages, I can identify and evaluate talent on behalf of our clients effectively and efficiently.

Although you changed seats, it goes without saying it remains critically important you maintain a pulse in the industry. What macrotrends are you noticing are having the greatest impact on the direction the partnership landscape is shifting toward?

The first would be the injection of talent that is entering the partnerships space with non-traditional experience. Historically, most partnership teams have been made up of folks with traditional sports backgrounds. You are now seeing an influx of talent from different industries that bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the teams that they join. These new ideas, experiences and areas of expertise are leading to properties reimagining what their partnerships look like.

The integration and implementation of cutting-edge technology would be the second macrotrend I am noticing. This is impacting the direction of the partnerships landscape in more ways than I can describe. Teams are utilizing technology to make the fan experience better than ever in collaboration with their brand partners; from engaging digital content and experiential activations, all the way through to the way guests order their soda and hot dogs in venue, technology is driving the level of integration sports properties can offer their partners. More value than ever can now also be driven for partners outside of gameday, and more importantly outside of the season. Brands' expectations now transcend gameday or the seasonality of the sport, they expect value year-round in a variety of areas. Technology and the ability to build assets and platforms across digital/social/web is one way that sports properties are able to satisfy this expectation.

Technology is also changing the relationship and dynamic between the property and the partner. With a keen eye on ROI, brands now have much higher expectations from properties when it comes to the ability to measure the success of the partnership against pre-established KPI’s. Technology is allowing brands to be far more sophisticated in their ability to optimize and evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing related efforts and has given more balance to the Art vs. Science equation in measuring return and value for a brand. The best sports properties are the ones that have recognized this and are being aggressive in adopting tools that allow them to show and articulate to brands how their dollars are going to work, the success that is being driven, and ultimately why they should spend, continue to spend, or even spend more!

What gets you most excited about the future of the sports & entertainment industry?

I am most excited to watch sports properties be forced to continue to innovate and be creative to drive their businesses forward. Sports teams are evolving to become media and entertainment entities with eSports teams, in-house content/media arms, agency affiliates, and more. It is an extremely competitive environment, and competition forces organizations to break out of their comfort zone to be successful.

As you look at the folks working within the industry, I am also excited to see the makeup of the industry become increasingly diverse from both a gender and ethnic background perspective. This is something that will take time but is certainly something that I am optimistic about and am excited to see progressively improve.

What are you most proud of as you reflect on your career?

This is an easy one to answer - winning Super Bowl LVI with the LA Rams in SoFi Stadium.

I bet on myself when originally moving to LA to work on the SoFi Stadium & Hollywood Park project. The role was unique, the revenue expectations were beyond what had been reached before, I was asking my wife to relocate to the west coast... there was a lot of unknown.

Watching the confetti fall, hugging my wife, inside SoFi Stadium, as a Super Bowl champion, truly was the bow on top of what was already a magical chapter of my life.

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ABOUT TURNKEYZRG

Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment, music and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model.