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Marc Williams
Marc Williams
	Marc Williams
Born	August 8, 1969 (age 54); New Jersey
Occupation(s)	Educator, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Executive Officer, Brand Director, Agent

Marc Williams (b. August 8, 1969), is a professional faculty member in the Sport Management program at George Mason University and also serves as Chief Marketing Officer for the College of Education and Human Development. He is a former Brand Director at Champs Sports, of which he was in charge of managing the Champs Sports Brand and Sponsorships ^[1]. Marc Williams was born and raised in New Jersey. He graduated from William Patterson University in 1997 and had a career changing experience while a participant in the 1995 Undergraduate Summer Research Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he completed a study on sports, discrimination, and career preferences among the then national champion University of Nebraska-Lincoln Cornhuskers football team ^[2] . Several mentors such as Dick Vitale, Peter P. Roby, and Richard Lapchickconvinced Marc to continue his education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst's Sport Management Master's Program, where he received his Masters in 1999. Prior to entering the field of academia, Marc founded a management and marketing group drawing a majority of clients from the sport and entertainment industries.

Career[edit]

Entrepreneurship[edit]

Marc is the Founder and CEO of Williams Communications; a talent management-marketing-consulting group that specializes in marketing strategies, brand awareness, entertainment talent procurement, and event management. His company targets Fortune 500 companies, high-profile entertainers and athletes to help to enhance their brand name in the marketplace. His clients include NBA Hall of Famers, Rick Barry and Nate Thurmond. Former clients include actors George Wallace, Tommy Ford, Marla Gibbs; NBA Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, Women's Basketball Olympian’s Diana Taurasi, Dawn Staley and Debbie Miller Palmore and companies Cingular Wireless, ESPN Mobile, Fox Entertainment, Atlantic Records, El Dorado Casino, Converse, Molten Basketball, Universal Records and Novartis Pharmaceutical.

In 2008, Williams Communications is preparing for the Basketball Hall of Fame's Induction Ceremonies held in Springfield, MA where the company will be filming a tribute to Basketball Hall of Famer Dick Vitale which is being produced by Bendrix and Marc's former William Patterson University classmate Ron Thompson.

Academics[edit]

In addition to entrepreneurship, Williams is a professional faculty member within George Mason University's Sport Management program. In addition to his duties as a faculty member Marc is the Chief Marketing Officer for the College of Education and Human Development. He will be working directly with Rober E. Baker as a professional faculty member. Marc's first course involves class trips to the Basketball Hall of Fame and celebrtity guest lecturers.

Champs Sports[edit]

Williams was the only African-American in his industry in charge of managing a sports retail brand (Champs Sports Brand) and National Sponsorships. He also managed the relationships with all the sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL), the Champs Sports Bowl property, Arena Football League and Arena Football team the Tampa Bay Storm. In addition, Marc managed Champs Sports relationship with their spokespersons; Tiki & Ronde Barber. He oversaw the programming for Champs Sports Television (in-store video network), and the relationships with the music, video game, movie, and television show industries. At the time of Marc's tenure he overaw Champs Sports 9,000 employees, annual sales of $1 billion, and a budget of approximately $20 million. Marc also managed all of Champs Sports events and appearances, which have resulted in a 100 % procurement rate in securing celebrities and athletes—which exceeds over 300 athletes and entertainers ^[3].

In his first two months at Champs Sports, Marc was successful negotiating the company’s first partnership with a record label, Universal/Motown Records Group. The groundbreaking national campaign featured recording artist Murphy Lee of the St. Lunatics. Williams also secured Nelly, Murphy Lee, & The St. Lunatics for the group’s first ever-National television commercial. Williams was also instrumental at securing Atlantic Records recording artist Fat Joe, TI, Fabolous and Trick Daddy for the Champs Sports Joint Chief Concert at the Apollo Theatre. The artists were featured on BET’s Top 25 Countdown at the Champs Sports Harlem Store. (The first time the show filmed at a sports retail store) ^[4].

Footaction[edit]

Prior to his position at Champs Sports, Marc had been Sr. Manager of Partnership Marketing for athletic-retailer Footaction where he managed a budget of approximately $3 million. During his tenure at Footaction, Marc was successful at cultivating over 50 partnerships with some of America's hottest record labels, videogame and movie companies to help promote Footaction stores nationwide. Marc was also instrumental in securing multi-platinum artist Eve, Ashanti, Outkast, Bow Wow and Jermaine Dupri for Footaction’s national campaigns. In addition, Marc successfully negotiated to have Footaction stores featured in the #2 ranked basketball videogame in the US in 2003, Activision’s Street Ball game, where the consumer outfitted their players in Footaction gear. As a result, Footaction earned its first "Innovator of the Year" award at the 2002 Vanguarde Media Awards ^[5].

Reebok[edit]

In 1999, Marc started his career in the sport and marketing industries as the Assistant to Reebok's Vice President of Marketing (name). In this position he managed and coordinated grassroots events for the Entertainers Basketball Classic in Harlem; Major League Baseball All-star Fanfest; WBCA All-American Basketball Camp for High School Women; AYFI 212 Campaign featuring Allen Iverson and Venus Williams; and the McDonald’s All-American Basketball Game.

Service[edit]

Over the years Marc has served the Children’s Dream Fund as a National Board of Director, Dallas YMCA as a Board of Director; and has consulted with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, National Urban League, National Women's Sports Foundation, and the Women's Basketball Coaches Association.

Awards[edit]

Williams’s overall efforts have earned him recognition on several different levels of his career.

1997 University of Nebraska-Lincoln National Science Foundation Fellow
1995-97 William Patterson University Board of Trustees Student Member
1997 William Patterson University Student Government Association's Lead Award (highest honor at the University)
2002 Vanguarde Media Top 50 Marketers in the US
2003 Billboard Magazine Sports Executive of the Year
2004 Network Journal Top 40 Business Leaders in the US (under the age of 40)
2004 Sports Illustrated Top 101 Minorities in Sports
2006 Successguide Worldwide Publication Top 30 Leaders of the Future