Our Team

As Chief Executive Officer and President, Richard Yaffa oversees this leading Strategic group of marketing and media companies. An industry expert with over 20 years experience in the new media, sports, entertainment, cause marketing and related business fields in North American and the global markets, Rich brings a distinct perspective to building businesses, enterprise value and brands. His strategic approach to the convergence of content, media and brands has allowed Rich and his team to develop successful business growth strategies for his clients. At the core of this approach they utilize unique business development processes, analytics, measurement and valuation tools. Rich and his team have also been at the forefront of monetizing and developing strategic content opportunities. As CEO, Rich has played a critical role in the success and significant growth of this business and business discipline.

Prior to founding Media Ventures Group Holdings, Rich was Chief Executive Officer of GroupM Entertainment, Sports and Partnerships, North America part of the leading global media investment management company in the world. GroupM Entertainment, Sports and Partnerships included companies such as GroupM ESP, IEG, MEC Access, Mindshare Performance, Mediacom ESP, and the GroupM Retail Promotions Group. These companies combined the rigor of data, processes, and innovation to develop innovative marketing solutions for prestigious brands such as Citi, Colgate, Dell, Volkswagen, Jones Apparel Group, Bayer, E&J Gallo, Genworth Financial, St. Jude Children’s Hospital, XEROX, Monster, BP, The Tribeca Film Festival and many others.

During Rich’s tenure, his team has been at the forefront of the evolution of branded engagement in the entertainment, sports and cause space. Under his leadership, GroupM Entertainment, Sports and Partnership teams have won multiple industry awards including Cause Marketing Forum’s Golden Halo, PR Week and Promo Magazine’s PRO Award.

Prior to leading GroupM Entertainment Sports and Partnerships, Rich was the Co-Founder, and Chief Executive Officer of The Leverage Group, where he led the company to multiple awards prior to negotiating sale of the firm to WPP/GroupM. At the Leverage Group, Rich developed the strategy for and negotiated 150+ partnerships.

Rich was also head of marketing and sales for the Columbia Records Group. Rich spearheaded numerous sales and marketing efforts and campaigns for artists such as Mariah Carey, Bruce Springsteen, Will Smith, Barbra Streisand, Billy Joel, Nas, Harry Connick Jr., and many others.

Rich received his Masters in Business Administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business and is a graduate of Franklin and Marshall College. He currently lives in New York with his wife, Cathy and two children Jessica and Douglas.

Bill Apfelbaum is Chairman of Media Ventures Group Holdings. A media industry legend with a record of guiding companies to success, Apfelbaum joined Media Ventures Group Holdings from Titan Worldwide, where he served as Chairman after cofounding the company in 2001. During his tenure, Apfelbaum saw the business become the fastest growing out-of-home advertising company in history. His investments and board positions total over 10 media based companies. From mid-August 1989 until April 2000, Bill served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TDI, which became the world’s largest diversified outdoor media company. Bill sold TDI to Infinity Broadcasting in March 1996, which was subsequently sold to Westinghouse/CBS in December of that year. Bill was involved in the management of all CBS divisions. Bill also serves on the board of many corporations and foundations and is involved with many philanthropic endeavors. In 1996, he founded the Apfelbaum Family Foundation, through which he donates time and funds to various charitable organizations.

Rod Arnold has more than 20 years of experience successfully driving aggressive growth for cause-driven organizations. Under Rod’s leadership, charity: water experienced 61% per annum revenue growth and emerged as a premier non-profit brand and social media leader. As Chief Operating Officer/Director of Special Projects, Rod was responsible for leading and scaling the organization, including a strategic approach to growing, leveraging and monetizing their online communities. He also led Teen Mania as an early-stage non-profit and drove growth from $3 million to $30 million in annual revenue, employing a multi-platform strategy of digital, direct mail and events. Rod is frequently a featured speaker at non-profit and social media conferences.

Gary Jacobus has spent most of his professional career in the sports and entertainment industry creating some of the largest corporate partnerships in sports marketing history. He began his sports career with the National Football League in 1991. During his seven year tenure with the NFL, the annual marketing partnership revenue grew from $10MM to over $100MM. Jacobus was responsible for the then largest partnership in sports history, a three year $87MM venture with Sprint.

Jacobus moved on to run IMG’s worldwide corporate consulting practice where he grew the division by 270% over a three year period. He was responsible for consummating a $2.5MM annual worldwide consulting agreement with Philips Electronics that was the most lucrative consulting assignment in IMG’s 40 year history.

During the peak of the Internet revolution Jacobus joined Trakus, a sports technology company, as its president and first sports executive among a company of engineers. He landed groundbreaking agreements with the NFL and NHL that helped position Trakus as the early leader in the digital sports information business.

Jacobus then stepped out of the sports world to start a healthier fast-casual restaurant concept called “UFood Grill” which currently has over 75 franchised units under contract across the U.S. He held the position of COO and then CMO during the first four years of the company’s existence.

In 2007, Jacobus joined the United States Tennis Association as managing director of marketing partnerships where he secured over $10MM in revenue for the US Open. In 2009, he became vice president of global marketing partnerships with the National Basketball Association. He led the team that secured the largest marketing partnership in NBA history with Sprint ($222MM over four seasons).

During his tenure with the NBA, Jacobus spearheaded several league firsts including: Boost Mobile’s marquee partnership of the WNBA; Spirits category partnership with Bacardi Gold Rum; Presenting partner of nationally televised NBA Development League games on VERSUS (Papa John’s); Hispanic focused national marketing partner program, “NBA Noche Latina presented by Right Guard”.

Jacobus received his MBA from The Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College and his BBA in Marketing from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. He serves on the board of advisors of the James H. Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon.

Jacobus lives in Larchmont, New York with his wife Kira Stokes.

David is a digital media executive who has spent a decade managing online properties for major media and entertainment entities. While working at Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM) as the Director of the Partner Solutions group prior to joining Media Ventures Group, David oversaw the business relationships with dozens of MLBAM’s baseball and non-baseball clients, including MLB teams, TV networks, sports leagues, athletes, musicians and non-profit organizations. The focus of his work has been on managing digital strategy, sponsorship implementation, unique methods of content monetization, website design and development, multimedia and mobile initiatives, social-media platforms, and strategic partnerships. Prior to MLBAM, David was part of the original startup team at CSTV: College Sports Television, which was sold to CBS in 2005 for $325 million, and where he ultimately served as Senior Online Editor of the network’s digital content and information portal after playing a critical role in helping the startup grow into an industry game-changer. David is a graduate of Lehigh University and received his MBA from Columbia Business School.

Leslie Gittess founded Blue Sky Media NYC in March 2010, after working in media, including professional sports leagues, for 16 years. At Blue Sky Media, Leslie helps early-stage companies with all aspects of their digital strategy. This work includes distribution and syndication of content, development of digital strategy and revenue opportunities, advertising and sponsorship sales and fund-raising.

Leslie worked for twelve years at the National Hockey League, as in-house counsel and then as a television and media executive. She then worked at MLB Advanced Media, Major League Baseball’s award-winning digital division, as the Vice President, Business Development for four years. In this role, Leslie secured and negotiated agreements with third parties to license MLB content in interactive media, structured deals to acquire technology and services for the MLB.com portal and secured venture funding for MLB initiatives.

Leslie graduated from Columbia University with a degree in Economics and received a law degree from Georgetown University. Leslie is a former Division 1 athlete, having played tennis at Columbia University for four years. She is also on the Executive Committee of the UJA’s Sports For Youth and Digital Media divisions, and the Alumni Board, Women’s Leadership Council and Dean’s Advisory Board of Columbia University.

Erin has more than thirteen years of professional experience working in consulting, project management, strategy development, non-profit fundraising and employee communication. Before joining Media Ventures Group, Erin served as Director of Development for Malaria No More, a non-governmental organization committed to ending malaria deaths in Africa by 2015. She also served as an Executive Director with the New York-based consulting firm CCS Fund Raising, which offers fundraising, development, and strategic counsel. Prior to transitioning into the non-profit sector, Erin was an Assistant Vice President with Aon Corporation in New York City. While at Aon, Ms. Dawkins managed client accounts to effectively communicate design, fund and market employee benefit information and human resources issues to client employees. Throughout her professional career, Ms. Dawkins has worked with organizations and corporations in a wide range of sectors, including civil and social services, cultural, religious, education, banking, financial services, hospital, manufacturing, media and retail. Erin serves on the Board of Directors for Infinite Family, as a job coach for the Coalition for the Homeless’ First Step program and as a mentor through the Step Up Women’s Network, of which she is also a member.She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Dartmouth College. Ms. Dawkins is a southern California native, who currently resides in New York City.

As Vice President, Chris works across accounts and disciplines to ensure the team’s expertise is being optimized for both clients and partners. Cuddy brings a wealth of experience in collaboration between corporate brands, marketing and media agencies, nonprofits and sports & entertainment properties. Chris joined Media Ventures Group from GroupM, where he was instrumental in scaling the Entertainment & Sports Partnership (ESP) consultancy across the world’s leading network of media agencies: Maxus, MEC, MediaCom & Mindshare. Providing strategic counsel to clients and agency account leads, Chris engineered partnership and platform solutions with such organizations as Volkswagen, Unilever, Allianz, Microsoft, Church & Dwight, Soccer United Marketing, NHL, AEG, The Madison Square Garden Company, ESPN and in the exploding endurance space. Cuddy was also part of the GroupM consultant team that negotiated the largest naming rights deal in history, Farmers Field, worth $700 million over 30 years.

Prior to GroupM ESP, Cuddy was Director, Business Leadership at McCann Worldgroup’s Momentum Worldwide. Leveraging expertise in live events, partnerships, content, digital, mobile and social media, Chris developed solutions for a wide range of global clients such as American Express, Intel, the Coca-Cola Company, Microsoft and Verizon. In particular with Verizon, he worked on the forefront of monetizing content and product integration opportunities. During Chris’s tenure, Verizon earned recognition in market research as the #1 Mobile Entertainment Provider and the #2 Digital Music Store and his team won multiple industry awards including the 2009 Ex Award Winner, Best Multicultural Event Campaign, How Sweet The Sound, Verizon Wireless and the 2007 Ex Award Winner, Best Production of an Event V CAST Music Launch, Verizon Wireless. He led the group responsible for the strategy, evaluation, negotiation, and measurement of Verizon’s vast sports & entertainment sponsorship portfolio (across NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, Action Sports and Sports & Entertainment Facilities and rights-holders). After collaborating to redefine Verizon’s sponsorship strategy, Chris led a rigorous portfolio audit of approximately 200 sponsorships that yielded $26 million in efficiencies and savings.

Chris’s diverse work background includes both corporate and nonprofit experience. Before joining Momentum Worldwide, Cuddy spent over five years working in Education and Civic Engagement and he continues to be active on City Year AmeriCorps’s Alumni board, helping to establish growth goals and to engage the corporate and larger alumni community. Chris is a graduate of Siena College and lives with his family in Manhattan.

Alex has built and grown emerging and blue-chip brands on the client, broadcast and agency sides of the business by successfully achieving high-impact business objectives within the sports and entertainment landscape. Alex brings along his experience in corporate consulting, experiential, talent and integrated marketing and the niche specialty of integrating brands experientially into the sports venue space. Prior to MVG, Alex co-founded the consulting practices within Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment and Steiner Sports Marketing, servicing brands such as DirecTV, MetLife, Pepsi, US Nutrition, and Ford. Working at the near insolvent One-On-One Sports Radio Network, Alex repositioned and sold the whole unit as an electronic extension of Paul Allen’s then Sporting News print publication. Gaining retail experience as Director of Promotions at Foot Locker Worldwide and its Foot, Lady and Kids brands, Alex jump-started its then struggling athletic business by partnering with strategic marketing partners that resulted in over $250 million in incremental sales revenue. Alex started his sports-marketing career working at News Corporation and its then upstart Fox Sports and its home entertainment division CBS/Fox Video. Highlights include generating industry and consumer acceptance of the fledging network through on-and-off air promotions of its NFL, NHL and MLB properties and the domestic and international production, marketing and release of NBA, NHL, NCAA and its fitness properties at CBS/Fox Video. Alex is married to Marion and has three children.

With both client and corporate side experience in cause marketing, brand management and securing strategic partnerships, Julia serves as Account Director with Media Ventures Group and Cause Innovation. Prior to joining Media Ventures Group, she was an Account Director at GroupM ESP. During this time, she played a leading role in the development of groundbreaking cause-related marketing campaigns for corporate clients, including Jones Apparel Group’s Jones New York In The Classroom and Scholastic’s Clifford Be Big! Campaigns. She led the cause department’s outreach for partnership development, including work with nonprofit organizations like HandsOn Network, TeachersCount and Adopt-A-Classroom, and corporations like Lowes, Macy’s, Time Inc. Julia managed the firm’s celebrity outreach efforts to secure A-list talent for cause-related campaigns; and was instrumental in developing successful PSAs, including Behind Every Famous Person is a Fabulous Teacher. Julia began her career in branding and marketing at the Estee Lauder companies in the Global Marketing and Public Relations department for the brand, Jo Malone.

Betsega Bekele has over a decade of experience executing creative, mission-focused results for a variety of companies. Betsega has worked extensively in the music industry, both with Creative Artists Agency and Integrity Music. Drawing from her artist management roots, she executed national and international tours, created web and video content for a wide roster of artists, and managed digital output across a variety of web platforms.

Most recently Betsega took her creative and project management skills to the non-profit world, as Annual Giving & Direct Mail Manager for Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee. While there, she surpassed her annual fundraising goals and brought a strategic, innovative approach to a variety of projects.

Betsega is passionate about presenting a cause in a way that best connects the need with the audience and now serves Media Ventures Group as an Account Director, working alongside non-profits and corporations that are looking to engage their communities with effective branding.

Sarah currently serves as an Account Director for Media Ventures Group. Prior to joining Media Ventures Group, Sarah was the Director of Marketing of AAM, a strategic marketing and communications firm with deep experience in effectively building brands that target women. At AAM, Sarah managed the planning and implementation of all events and supervised creative marketing strategies. She has produced events and publicity campaigns for luxury beauty brands including Jemma Kidd, mark (an Avon brand), FitFlop and Marimekko. Prior to AAM, Sarah worked as an Account Executive for three years at Dan Klores Communications, overseeing sports, entertainment, business and lifestyle brands. Her client roster included W Hotels, ESPN Zone, ESPN Magazine, Meredith Corporations, Tim Robbins, John Bon Jovi, P. Diddy, Yao Ming, Dave Mirra, Major League Baseball, Arena Football League and the NFL.

With more than 14 years of online media experience, Mike Elliott manages, designs and implements integrated marketing campaigns at MVG. His online marketing expertise includes leveraging emerging media and user-generated content to develop sophisticated and effective interactive communications that result in greater donor retention rates, increased returns and a more fulfilling user experience. Prior to joining Media Ventures Group, Mike specialized in interactive communications and execution at Brickmill Marketing Services, where he managed all interactive initiatives across the a diverse client base. Prior to joining Brickmill, Mike was the Interactive Strategy Director for Barton Cotton where he designed and managed campaigns within every major nonprofit vertical. Before Barton Cotton, he was the Director of Online Services for The Enterprise Foundation, where he managed and promoted award-winning sites that earned acclaim from USA Today, Yahoo! and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Vanessa Lovering is an Account Manager at Media Ventures Group. In this role, she assists the Account team in developing innovative client strategies and partnerships for our clients. She has experience in digital marketing with a focus on paid search, display advertising, and the development and execution of social and digital strategies. Prior to joining Media Ventures Group, she was an Account Coordinator at 360i where she worked with brands including Saks Fifth Avenue, Smirnoff, Guinness and Red Stripe.

Malini Lakhaney graduated Cum Laude from New York University in 2009 where she completed a major in Marketing and Communications. Before joining the Media Ventures Group Team, Malini worked at AAM, a strategic marketing organization specializing in brand development, marketing and public relations. During this time, she gained experience in a variety of industries, ranging from beauty, fashion, health and wellness, entertainment, and more. She has also had a variety of internships, which include working for the advertising agency at NBC Universal, a non-profit organization, and within the public relations section of a popular fashion label. This diversity of experiences has strengthened her communication skills and fueled her passion for working in the marketing industry.

With over 15 years in Media and Advertising, Juan brings a diverse accounting management experience. As Controller, he has overall responsibility for financial reporting activities for Media Ventures Group and its subsidiaries. He also oversees human resources and office administration.

Tessa has built her marketing experience in luxury- and fashion-based public relations and international communications. Before joining Media Ventures Group, she worked at Coty Beauty in Global PR, where she helped to create and execute global launch and PR strategies for over 15 celebrity and lifestyle beauty brands, including Beyonce, Heidi Klum and GUESS. Previously, she was the Assistant to the Worldwide Director of Communications at Stella McCartney. Until moving to NYC, Tessa lived in Canada, where she was a part of the team that produced of Toronto’s LG Fashion Week. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Toronto and completed a graduate certificate in International Marketing.