Wasserman Hires a Private Equity Veteran to Lead Dealmaking Strategy

Music and entertainment company Wasserman has hired private equity veteran Steve Murray as executive vp of mergers and acquisitions and strategy.

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Murray joins the Hollywood talent, entertainment, sports and advisory company from Providence Equity Partners, where as a principal he helped spearhead a strategic investment in Wasserman in Nov. 2022. Murray was key to two acquisitions for Wasserman: CSM Sport & Entertainment in October 2023 and Brillstein Entertainment Partners a month earlier.

Casey Wasserman’s acquisition of Brillstein expanded his firm’s portfolio beyond sports talent representation, lifestyle marketing and music booking and brought in clients like Brad Pitt, Florence Pugh and Tiffany Haddish.

“Steve’s nearly fifteen years of experience sourcing, structuring and executing highly complex and transformative transactions, paired with his deep knowledge of the sports, music and entertainment industries globally, are a perfect match for our business as we look to accelerate our pace of acquisition in this next leg of our growth,” Wasserman CFO Elena Rochelli said in a statement.

Murray joining Wasserman signals the company’s growth through M&A could gather pace.

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“I am eager to contribute to our next phase of growth and pursue new M&A opportunities to expand Wasserman’s services, capabilities, and geographic presence. There is a tremendous opportunity to advance M&A and growth across the company, and I look forward to helping drive this future success,” Murray said in his own statement.

While at Providence for 12 years, Murray dealt with the sports, music, and entertainment industries, which included collaborations with the National Football League, Major League Soccer, Learfield, Real Madrid, and Warner Music.

He had specialisms in media rights, digital marketing, commercial rights, music rights, technology and education.

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