UTA Acquisition Corporation
LIQUIDATION – 9/1/23 – LINK
- The Company anticipates the last day of trading in the Class A ordinary shares will be September 15, 2023.
- The per-share redemption price will be approximately $10.67
MANAGEMENT & BOARD
Executive Officers
Clinton Foy, 49
Co-Chief Executive Officer and Director
Clinton Foy is General Partner of Venture Capital at UTA and has been in this role since April 2021. Clinton leads and co-leads a number of initiatives across the organization including direct investing, venture capital investments, fund development and UTA Venture Capital. Clinton previously worked with Crosscut Ventures (crosscut.vc), a $300 million fund, as a Managing Director and General Partner leading venture capital investments in consumer tech, new platforms, streaming and gaming. While at Crosscut beginning from 2013, Clinton co-founded the top gaming and esports organization, the Immortals and IGC.gg, which owns top esports franchises in Riot Games’ professional esports leagues, Activision Blizzard’s leagues, Counterstrike, and other top esports. He also led investments in a number of top gaming platforms including Streamlabs (acquired by Logitech), Blitz Esports (acquired by Discord), and PlayVS. Prior to Crosscut, Clinton led business, operations, mobile, and corporate development as COO and General Counsel of Square Enix, a $7 billion publicly traded international publisher, developer and multi-media company where he launched Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Space Invaders, Kingdom Hearts and Tomb Raider franchises on multiple platforms, PC, and mobile. Clinton is a senior advisor and investor in technology and gaming with Warburg Pincus, a $60 billion private equity and growth fund. Clinton earned a BA from the University of Notre Dame, a JD from the University of Washington School of Law and a MA from Stanford University. Clinton grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and now lives in Los Angeles, California with his family.
Jamie Sharp, 29
Co-Chief Executive Officer
Jamie Sharp was previously a Business Development Manager at Google from September 2015 to June 2021, where he was responsible for partnership strategy and execution in Cloud Gaming across B2B (Google Cloud) and B2C (Stadia). At Google Cloud, Jamie partnered with leading games companies to leverage Google’s Cloud technologies and applications to build, deploy and operate games in Mobile, AAA and Game Engines. At Stadia, Jamie created the New Business Development group, which is responsible for Stadia’s partnerships across Game Engines and Technology, Growth & Distribution, OEM, Venture Capital, Game Porting and Product Partnerships. In this capacity, Jamie has worked deeply with leading games companies globally and secured some of Google’s most critical gaming partnerships and technology investments. Jamie earned a BA from Georgetown University after graduating from Eton College, and resides in Miami, Florida.
Chris Jefferis, 47
Chief Financial Officer
Chris Jefferis is a certified public accountant and has been the Chief Accounting Officer of UTA since May 2021. Prior to joining UTA, Chris was Senior Vice President, Clients Controller of Endeavor (formerly WME | IMG) from November 2015 to May 2021. Chris began his career with Ernst & Young in 1997 and worked in accounting and controller roles in a number of media companies from 2001 to 2015, including Global Eagle Entertainment Inc., ReachLocal and Demand Media. Chris earned a BA in Accounting from Washington State University and resides in Los Angeles, California.
Ophir Lupu, 43 [Resigned 9/26/22]
President
Ophir Lupu has served as Partner and Head of Video Games at UTA. In his nearly 10 years at UTA, Ophir has directly negotiated and overseen over one billion dollars of transaction value. Under his purview, UTA’s industry leading gaming division represents over 30 of the world’s top game developers and nearly 100 professional esports athletes, content creators, and streamers. The group’s clients include globally successful game creators and development studios including Ken Levine (Bioshock franchise), Moon Studios (Ori and the Will of the Wisps), Playdead (Limbo, Inside), Counterplay Games (Godfall), Glen Schofield (Dead Space franchise, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3), and many more. The division also includes UTA’s esports department, which represents some of the top talent in the gaming world, such as Nickmercs, Pokimane, Symfuhny, Valkyrae, Disguised Toast, BrookeAB and Grandmaster Hikaru, among many others. Additionally, Ophir has served as a financial advisor on several high profile M&A deals, most recently brokering the sale of Klei Entertainment to Tencent as well as the sales of Redemption Games (acquired by AppLovin), Midwinter Entertainment (acquired by Improbable), Jolly (acquired by Riot Games) and Big Huge Games (acquired by Nexon). Ophir has also been recognized in various media outlets for his contributions to the gaming industry and was included in Variety’s 2018 List of the 500 Most Influential Business Leaders in Global Media. Ophir earned a BA from The George Washington University and resides in Los Angeles, California with his family.
Board of Directors
Reginald Fils-Aimé, 60
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Reginald (Reggie) Fils-Aimé is an award-winning innovator and disrupter most recognized as the former President and Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America, the largest division of the Japanese entertainment company Nintendo Co., Ltd. In this capacity, he helped bring the Nintendo DS, the Wii, the Nintendo 3DS, the Wii U and the Nintendo Switch to the global marketplace. Reggie joined Nintendo of America Inc. in December 2003 as Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing. In May 2006, he was promoted to President and Chief Operating Officer. He ran the day-to-day operations of Nintendo of America and was responsible for all activities for Nintendo in the United States, Canada and Latin America. In 2016, Reggie was appointed to the global Executive Officer committee for Nintendo Co., Ltd. He retired in April 2019 and in October 2019 was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame. Prior to Nintendo, Reggie was an operating executive in the media, consumer packaged goods and durable goods industries. Reggie currently is a non-executive director and member of the audit committee of Spin Master Inc. (TOY.TO) and Brunswick Corp. (BC). He is also a special advisor for Rogue Co., an innovative video games publisher and developer. Reggie graduated from Cornell University’s Dyson undergraduate business school.
Kathy Vrabeck, 58
Director Nominee
Kathy Vrabeck has served as Chief Strategy Officer of The Beachbody Company since April 2021, where she is responsible for prioritizing and driving strategic growth initiatives, human capital allocation, and M&A efforts and integration. Kathy has over two decades of general management experience in consumer package goods and digital entertainment, and a decade of talent acquisition and advisory expertise. Before joining Beachbody, she was a Senior Client Partner in the Los Angeles office of Korn Ferry, a global talent and organizational advisory firm, where she led the Consumer Digital Practice, working closely with consumer and technology clients from October 2015 to April 2021. Prior to that, she was a Partner at Heidrick & Struggles, where she served as Global Sector Leader of their Media, Entertainment and Digital practice and partner-in-charge of the Los Angeles. Kathy has held leadership roles at Legendary Entertainment, where she served as President, Legendary Digital and was responsible for the creation, management and delivery of digital entertainment; at Electronic Arts, Inc., where she served as President, EA Casual Entertainment and led EA’s efforts in the fastest growing segments of the video game market: mobile, online, social networking and global media sales; and at Activision, Inc., where she served as President, Activision Publishing, overseeing Activision’s product development and global brand management and publishing operations. Earlier in her career, Kathy held various marketing, sales and finance positions with ConAgra, The Pillsbury Company, Quaker Oats, and Eli Lilly and Company. She currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Nominations & Governance Committee of MediaAlpha (NYSE: MAX). Additionally, Kathy serves as Chair of the Board of Trustees of DePauw University. She graduated with Phi Beta Kappa honors from DePauw University with a bachelor’s degree in French and economics. She received her MBA from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business with concentrations in marketing and finance.
Nancy Tellem, 68
Director Nominee
Nancy Tellem is the Executive Chairperson of Eko, a media network that reimagines storytelling by using proprietary technology to create interactive stories that respond to and leverage the interactive nature of today’s media devices. In addition, as a board member of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Holdings Inc. (“Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer”) since 2013, Nancy expanded her role from January 2019 through July 2019, becoming Executive Director to the Office of the CEO to help develop the overall long-term strategy for the company. Until October of 2014, Nancy was President of Xbox Entertainment Studios where she oversaw Microsoft’s TV strategy and created a studio focused on the development and production of interactive programming. From 1997 to 2012, Nancy was President of the CBS Network Television Entertainment Group. She oversaw both CBS Entertainment Network and CBS Studios. Before CBS, Nancy was the Executive Vice President of Business and Financial Affairs for Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. where she shepherded such hits as “ER” and “Friends.” In 2006, Nancy was inducted into the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame for her contributions to the electronic arts. Nancy holds board and advisory positions at numerous digital and media-related companies, including Eko, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Nielsen Holdings plc, LeagueApps, Inc., KODE Labs, Inc. and is a board member of Rocket Companies, Inc., Cranbrook Art Academy and Museum, and Seeds of Peace, Inc. Ms. Tellem has also served as a member of the board of directors of Gores Guggenheim, Inc. since March 2021. Nancy earned her B.A. from the University of California Berkeley, and received her J.D. from University of California, Hastings College of Law.
Alexis Ohanian, 38
Director Nominee
Alexis Ohanian was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in the suburbs of Baltimore, MD. He wrote the national bestselling book, Without Their Permission, and has been a vocal advocate for the open internet, STEM education and paid family leave. Out of college, Alexis co-founded Reddit, one of the largest websites in the U.S., which was funded by Y Combinator in 2005 and sold to Conde Nast in 2006. He returned as executive chairman in 2014 to help lead the turnaround of the now independent company that today is worth over $10 billion. In 2016, he left Reddit to run the venture capital firm he co-founded, Initialized Capital, and built it to $100 billion in market value through early investments in companies like Coinbase, Opendoor, Instacart, Patreon, and Ro. In 2020 he resigned from the Reddit board and left his role at Initialized Capital to launch Seven Seven Six, a new software-enabled venture firm focused on people, culture, and community. Seven Seven Six’s mission is to attract the best founders and generate the greatest returns—and to do it with intention. As an advocate for paid family leave, Alexis has lobbied on Capitol Hill, penned a New York Times opinion piece, and launched the Business Dad podcast where he interviews other fathers about what it means to be a dad in today’s world and how they balance their careers and families. He is also the lead founding investor in the LA-based professional women’s soccer team, Angel City Football Club. Alexis has a BA in History and a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia.