WSJ Features Ash Wendt, President & CoFounder, on CMOs Movement to Sports
Cowen Partners Executive Search is proud to share that President and Co-Founder Ash Wendt was featured in the latest Wall Street Journal article, “Marketers Are Quitting Corporations for Sports Teams.”
The piece explores a fast-growing trend: senior marketing leaders leaving traditional corporate roles for the purpose-driven, high-velocity world of professional sports.
Drawing on his deep experience placing marketing and commercial executives across global sports organizations, Wendt explains why these roles hold such powerful appeal.
“It gets them out of just selling products,” Wendt told The Wall Street Journal. “You’re helping to shape identity, community, and passion—that’s super attractive for somebody who wants their work to resonate outside of rigid sales numbers.”
The article highlights how franchises—from MLS to Formula 1 to emerging women’s leagues—are aggressively recruiting talent outside sports, seeking leaders who can build brands, transform fan experiences, and influence culture. Wendt’s perspective underscores why the sports industry has become one of the most competitive hiring arenas for top CMOs and commercial leaders.
Read the full feature in The Wall Street Journal.
About Ash Wendt
As a founding partner of Cowen Partners, Ash Wendt has drawn on his career experience in sales and executive recruiting to build a vibrant, dynamic firm.
His results-driven approach is rooted in discipline, strength of purpose, and the belief that Cowen Partners fulfills a need across industries. He excels in developing strategic processes to hire top-level talent for a variety of clients. Ash is frequently quoted in The Wall Street Journal.
After graduating from Portland State University, Ash developed a robust and successful career as a B2B sales professional, selling technology solutions to businesses of all sizes across a range of industries. He made the transition to agency recruiting, growing a reputation for acquiring quality talent in sales, marketing, operations, and finance.
After several years in agency recruiting, Ash realized that most recruiting firms had a narrow focus, servicing either a small regional area or a single industry. Agencies were also often out of synch with modern practices and technology. Developing Cowen Partners Executive Search filled that gap, and the firm has grown to be one of the nation’s fastest-growing executive recruiting firms.
As a founding partner and practice leader for Cowen Partners Executive Search’s Sales and Marketing division, Ash has successfully placed high-quality executives in positions such as Chief Revenue Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Vice President of Sales, and Vice President of Marketing, among others.
About the Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal was founded in July 1889. Ever since, the Journal has led the way in chronicling the rise of industries in America and around the world. In no other period of human history has the planet witnessed changes so dramatic or swift.
The Journal has covered the births and deaths of tens of thousands of companies; the creation of new industries such as autos, aerospace, oil, and entertainment; two world wars and numerous other conflicts; profound advances in science and technology; revolutionary social movements; the rise of consumer economies in the U.S. and abroad; and the fitful march of globalization.
About Cowen Partners Executive Search
Cowen Partners Executive Search is a leading executive search firm, with trailblazing executive placement consultants who enable companies to harness the power of human capital to fuel their success.
At Cowen Partners Executive Search, we give our clients access to the top 1% of human capital to create opportunities that accelerate their growth and market share. With Cowen Partners Executive Search, clients can grow at scale, create value, and drive results with world-class talent. Our clients are both small and large, publicly traded, pre-IPO, private, and non-profit organizations.
Clients are typically $50 million to multi-billion dollar revenue Fortune 1000 companies or have assets between $500 million to $15 billion. Successful placements span the entire C-Suite and include VP leadership roles.
With our proven processes and guaranteed results, we have successfully placed hundreds of candidates in industries including technology, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, financial services, and private equity.
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