PATRICK WHITESELL

Executive Chairman & Director Endeavor Group Holdings

Whitesell can take a bow for helping mount the initial public offering a year ago that bolstered the debt-heavy sports and entertainment company, famous for its WME talent agency. In September, Endeavor acquired gambling platform and service provider OpenBet for $1.2 billion. In July, Whitesell’s company purchased Shanghai-headquartered sports digital marketing agency Mailman Group and around the same time Qcue, which develops software for dynamic ticket pricing in sports and entertainment. Endeavor divested 80% its successful Hollywood content production unit in a November deal as part of its agreement with a Hollywood labor union for its talent agency to exit program packaging.