George Messina and Dan Vaillant have been named the co-Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of CAA Icon in a leadership transition that will see the company’s current co-CEOs – Marc Farha and Charlie Thornton – step up to Co-Chairmen roles.
‘SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’ stated that Farha and Thornton will transition the day-to-day running of the company over time to Dan Vaillant and George Messina who are both based in Denver (US).
The changes come with CAA Icon boasting chock-a-block project diary.
A division of the leading entertainment and sports agency Creative Artists Agency (CAA) Denver (US)-based CAA Icon is the world’s-leading Owners Representative (an independent construction professional hired by a property or project owner to manage and oversee a building project exclusively on their behalf) and strategic management consulting firm for the public and private sports and entertainment facility owners/operators, professional franchises and leagues.
Longest Serving Employees
‘SPORTS BUSINESS JOURNAL’ further stated that the change had been discussed internally for about a year. Several factors sparked it: Farha (2001) and Thornton (2004) are two of CAA Icon’s longest serving employees but were ready to make way for the next generation of company leaders, a layer of longtime senior executives needed more growth opportunity within the company and the work and the responsibilities needed to be more widely disseminated to cope with one of the busiest periods in the company’s existence.
Project Management Teams
Vaillant joined Icon in 2007 and has led project management teams for many of the firm’s highest-profile arena and stadium projects across the National Hockey League (NHL), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Major League Soccer (MLS), and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). George Messina has been with Icon for more than two decades contributing to 17 sports and entertainment projects across North America.
Revenue Generation
During their time at Icon Dan Vaillant has been more focused on revenue generation with Messina oriented toward the expense management side. The pair first worked together on the 18,347-seat Rogers Place project in Edmonton (Canada) almost 15 years ago.
Managing People-Projects-Clients
Maintained Messina, “That told me a lot about how we both managed people, projects and clients consistently and I think that’s going to prove to be true again as we’re running the business. We really do complement and challenge each other at times ask the questions we need to ask to get our goals in alignment.”
Major Player
Farha was Icon Founder Tim Romani’s first hire in 2001 (at Romani Group which later became Icon) and was followed shortly by Thornton in 2004. Both contributed significantly to making the firm a major player in stadium and arena development. They’ve been co-CEOs since 2022.
‘Move in Right Direction’
Stated Vaillant, “We know we have big shoes to fill in terms of Marc and Charlie. We’re excited for this opportunity to continue to grow and move in the right direction.”
Restructured Leadership Team
The moves at the top coincide with a restructuring beneath. Icon’s new senior leadership team is:
- Marc Farha and Charlie Thornton: Co-Chairmen;
- Dan Vaillant and George Messina: Co-CEOs;
- Melissa Heiter: Chief Business Development Officer;
- Michael Arnold: President, Business Operations;
- Dan Loosbrock: President, Project Delivery;
- Josh Cohen: President, Strategic Advisory; and
- David Hickey: Managing Director, European Operations.
Concrete Objectives
Dan Vaillant and George Messina’s added responsibilities will include things as murky and malleable as steering the company culture and vision to concrete objectives like contract fulfillment, hitting the growth targets, risk management, and project delivery success.
The above changes come as CAA Icon could hardly be busier.
Active Projects
It has 34 active projects in five countries constituting more than $10B including the new/renovated National Football League (NFL) stadiums for the Tennessee Titans, the Washington Commanders, the Kansas City Chiefs, and the Carolina Panthers, and new arenas for the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Oklahoma City Thunder, the National Hockey League (NHL) team Calgary Flames and the NBA team San Antonio Spurs in addition to projects for the Major League Baseball (MLB) team Athletics, the Major League Soccer (MLS) team Chicago Fire FC and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team Denver Summit FC. Included in the $10B figure is more than $3.5B in renovations led by the 20,356-seat Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., the 20,000-seat Delta Center in Utah, the 19,800-seat Scotiabank Arena in Toronto (Canada), the 18,055-seat Toyota Center in Houston, the 19,395-seat Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, and the 43,205-seat Villa Park in Birmingham, England (UK).
Yin-yang Fit
Messina said Icon had 120 employees in November 2024 and now has 165. Vaillant then gave a perfect demonstration of his yin-yang fit with Messina.
Informed Vaillant, “That’s the expense side of it. I’m looking at the $10B worth of work we have.”
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