Name, image and likeness consultancy Altius Sports Partners is adding a pair of advisers to its team in Renie Anderson, the NFL’s EVP and chief revenue officer, and Michael O’Hara Lynch, who formerly served as Visa’s head of global sponsorship marketing and spent five years leading Nielsen Sports’ global consulting practice.
In her role with the NFL, Anderson is in charge of driving league revenue through partnerships, corporate sponsors and licensees. With the league since 2006, she is also responsible for all media sales for the NFL’s owned-and-operated assets and is a member of the Sports Innovation Lab’s Women’s Leadership Board. Lynch is a partner in 3 Emerald Marketing, a marketing consulting firm that serves sports, music and entertainment.
The two will be involved in reviewing and helping develop Altius’ educational materials for partner schools.
Altius launched in 2020, as schools and athletic departments across the country started to lay the groundwork for expected NIL legislative changes. The advisory firm, which builds individualized programs for athletic departments depending on a school’s NIL needs, will tap into Anderson’s and Lynch’s knowledge on the commercial education front, particularly around the topics of endorsements, brand alignment and developing long-term relationships beyond a one-off deal or appearance.
“What seems to be missing in the NIL conversation in college is the demand side, meaning the brands that are going to be hiring the student-athletes at the local, regional and national level,” said Altius CEO and founding partner Casey Schwab. “There have been a lot of conversations around what brands want and if brands are going to be allocating big, small or no budgets for college athletes as NIL rules unfold. We went out and found two of the best partnership, marketing and branding people in the country to provide guidance to our schools and education to the athletes at those schools about what that side all means.”
The pair join existing Altius advisory team members Oliver Luck, the former West Virginia AD and NCAA EVP; Olympic gold medalist and ESPN MLB analyst Jessica Mendoza; Kenneth Shropshire, CEO of the Global Sport Institute; Jené Elzie, the chief growth officer at Athletes First Partners; and former Vanderbilt athletic director Malcolm Turner.
Alongside Schwab, Altius leadership includes founding partners David Carter, a sports business strategist; media consultant John Entz, who most recently served as Fox Sports’ president of production; and educational consultant and sports law expert Gabe Feldman.
“I’m very proud to be joining such a strong group of industry leaders as an adviser and supporting ASP’s mission of educating athletes, administrators and brands on NIL programs as the landscape evolves over time,” Anderson said.
While the NCAA has yet to vote on its own proposed changes or its eventual NIL implementation partner, state legislatures have moved ahead across the country. Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and at least two other states are set to allow athletes to endorse products and sign marketing deals starting July 1.
Current Altius clients include Louisiana State University, the University of Texas, the University of South Carolina and the University of Georgia.
