EverWonder

Situation Overview:

ZRG has been engaged to recruit an SVP, Brand Partnerships for EverWonder.

About EverWonder:

EverWonder Studio is a new independent content studio led by Ian Orefice – the former President of TIME and TIME Studios – and Mike Antinoro – the former President of Endeavor's Film 45 and former EVP of Dick Clark Productions.

EverWonder is backed by Red Bird Capital Partners and Jeff Zucker – the former President of NBC Universal, CNN, and Turner Sports. Guided by leaders with decades of experience across the industry’s most renowned businesses, EverWonder is a trusted partner for creatives and distributors with a mission to reshape the landscape of non-fiction content across all established and emerging platforms. EverWonder is a trusted partner for creatives, distributors, and stories with a mission to reshape the landscape of non-fiction content across all established and emerging platforms.

EverWonder is the premier team redefining how sports, culture, and global affairs are experienced across platforms. EverWonder's business model is built on owning and monetizing original IP — then extending that IP into branded partnerships, consumer products, licensing, and new revenue streams.

From producing Netflix’s record-breaking Live Tyson-Paul Fight to the creating the innovative Players Era College NIL Basketball Tournament, EverWonder takes nonfiction subjects with worldwide appeal and transforms them into entertainment that has purpose, expanding those projects as businesses across platforms, screens, and experiences. EverWonder is a proud home for creatives around the world.

Mission

To ignite the world’s curiosity through entertainment that matters.

Position

EverWonder is hiring its first dedicated SVP, Brand Partnerships — a senior revenue leader who will build the company's brand partnership and sponsorship function from the ground up. This is not a traditional media sales role. The company needs a hybrid operator to run this function: part strategic partnerships executive, part branded entertainment architect, part creative business builder.  EverWonder operates across three distinct commercial fronts:

Owned Inventory:

• Selling controlled inventory such as festivals, live events, and tentpole productions where EverWonder directly packages and sells sponsorship opportunities. directly
• Examples include The Players Era Festival and Villanova v. Notre Dame Basketball at The Vatican.
• Underwritten Content:
• Attracting brand partners and structuring deals to fund orco-develop programming before distribution is locked.
• Develop and implement sponsorship models that position brands as strategic partners rather than advertisers.
• For example, EverWonder has executed deals with Deloitte, Palantir, Salesforce, and others, and is actively pursuing opportunities like the Waymo driverless-car documentary.

Branded Content:

• Build scalable branded entertainment and integrated content capabilities. 
• Potentially operating as an outsourced creative and production partner for major brands. 
• Having built the production infrastructure, EverWonder is now exploring whether branded content becomes a dedicated business line.

The new leader will inherit a lean, capable team of four (one mid-level rep and two account managers), and will work closely with agency partners — including CAA, Jigsaw, and others — who effectively serve as EverWonder's extended sales force. The goal is not to build a large internal team but to build a smart, nimble operation that maximizes the leverage of EverWonder's IP, relationships, and agency ecosystem.

Responsibilities:

•  Lead all brand partnerships, sponsorship, and advertising revenue activity across EverWonder's full content and live event slate;
• Manage and develop a small, high-performance internal sales team; set strategy, allocate resources, and manage the full pipeline of partnership opportunities across content and live events;
• Own relationships with EverWonder's external agency partners (CAA, Jigsaw, etc.) — leveraging them as the company's primary sales distribution network;
• Drive creative deal-making: develop bespoke partnership concepts, branded integrations, and co-creation opportunities in collaboration with EverWonder's content and production teams;
• Lead the development of go-to-market materials, pitch decks, and partnership packages for the full slate;
• Identify and develop branded content opportunities — working with production to build high-margin integrated content offerings from the ground up;
• Build and deepen direct relationships with brand CMOs, marketing decision-makers, and senior agency contacts;
• Work collaboratively with Front Office Sports and other distribution partners to structure packaging and cross-platform sponsorship opportunities.

Qualifications:

EverWonder is looking for a highly entrepreneurial, proven revenue leader — someone who can manage a high-stakes partnership pipeline, develop and execute a commercial strategy from scratch, and lead both an internal team anda network of external agency partners simultaneously. These qualities are essential:

•  Entrepreneurial Builder. Can create the partnership playbook AND execute it — builds new, innovative revenue streams from scratch rather than selling from a rate card.
• Activated Rolodex. Arrives with live, senior relationships at brands and with CMOs they can immediately activate against EverWonder's IP and content slate.
• Startup DNA. Thrives in a high-growth startup environment — comfortable with ambiguity, willing to roll up their sleeves, and energized by the pace. EverWonder is not for the institutionalized; it's for the scrappy executive who wants to build something.
• Commercial Origination. Demonstrated history of personally sourcing and closing partnership deals through proactive business development and ingenuity, rather than primarily managing inbound demand or established advertising relationships.

Additional experience that will strengthen a candidacy:

• Background in media, live events, sports, entertainment, ornon-fiction content;
• Experience managing agency relationships and building revenue through external sales partners;
• Comfortable working across both direct brand relationships and agency-led processes simultaneously;
• Consumer products, IP licensing, and/or merchandise experience area plus as EverWonder looks to expand beyond sponsorship.

Logistics

• Location: New York, NY
• Office: In-office four days per week; most of the team work remotely on Fridays.
• Employment: At-will.
• Reporting: Mike Beck (COO)

Senior Management:

Ian Orefice

Founder/Chief Executive Officer

Ian Orefice is founder and CEO of EverWonder Studio, a full-service independent content studio and production company known for elevated nonfiction storytelling and live events. He leads all business strategy, IP development, and production across the company’s slate of documentary, live, experiential, brand partnerships, and more.

Orefice, an Emmy, Peabody, and Webby Award-winning producer and media executive,launched EverWonder Studio in the fall of 2023 with the backing of Jeff Zucker’s RedBird IMI. Prior to EverWonder, Orefice served as President and COO of TIME and its Emmy-winning production division TIME Studios, which he launched in early 2020. Under his leadership, TIME Studios grew to generate over $100million in revenue with more than 20 projects sold including Netflix’s Jeen-Yuhsand Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul, CNN Films’ John Lewis: Good Trouble, and the Time 100 specials for ABC. Orefice started his career as a producer for CNNMoney.com and Sports Illustrated. He is based in New York.

Mike Beck

Chief Operating Officer

Mike Beck is an Emmy and Webby Award-winning producer and media executive with a proven track record of building and leading high-performing teams that create compelling, revenue-driving content. As Chief Operating Officer of EverWonder Studio, he oversees operations across a growing portfolio of premium content and live experiences, shaping strategy and execution to support continued business growth.

With deep expertise spanning television, digital media, branded content, and production, Mike has held senior leadership roles at TIME, where he served as General Manager and previously as VP, Executive Producer. During his tenure, heled large-scale content initiatives and developed innovative partnerships across brands, media companies, and advertisers.

Earlier in his career, Mike spent nearly a decade with Time Inc. Studios, rising from Production Manager to Senior Executive Producer, where he played a key role in developing branded entertainment, custom content, and original video programming for major advertisers. His background also includes consulting and production work across a range of media and digital organizations, as well as early leadership roles in digital entertainment and global creative collaboration platforms.

Mike is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and holds a degree in International Business from Lafayette College, with additional studies in German at Universität Bonn.

EverWonder in The News:

January 6, 2025

How the Studio Behind the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson Fight Punches Above Its Weight

December 17, 2024

Mike Tyson Docu series On Life & Legacy Of Legendary Boxer Set At Netflix

December 6, 2024

Netflix Taps Jeff Ross To Host ‘Torching 2024: A Roast Of The Year’

Interview Process:

ZRG provides our global Clients with a rigorous and patented assessment platform grounded in data and analytics. Our interview process includes the following:

1. Initial interviews with ZRG
2. ZRG presentation of candidates to Client for calibration and discussion; Client selects candidates for consideration and initial interviews
3. Candidates complete ZRG’s on-line assessment
4. Finalist candidates advance to second and third round interviews with broader leadership team
5. Formal referencing
6. Offer extended

 About ZRG:

ZRG is a global talent advisory firm that is changing the way companies hire and manage talent. ZRG’s data-driven approach to executive and professional search has been changing the way clients think about how to find top talent. The company’s digital Zi platform combines talent intelligence, candidate insights, and process improvement to dramatically deliver executive searches quicker and with proven better results.

Rich Tackenberg
Managing Director
rtackenberg@zrgpartners.com

Rich Tackenberg leads the executive search practice for Sucherman, ZRG Partners' media and entertainment division. He has a proven track record of recruiting world-class talent for the organizations that play critical roles in our culture, communities and society, from major media companies to digital innovators to social impact non-profits. An industry veteran, Rich advises C-suite leaders and boards as they navigate the complex hiring decisions essential to the future of their organizations.

With a career foundation in media and entertainment, Rich has developed a deep understanding of what it takes to be an effective leader in increasingly challenging environments where executives must manage diverse stakeholders, mission-driven staff and, often, industry disruption. The essential skill of building a compelling, motivating narrative for any enterprise is at the heart of organizational success – enabling stakeholder engagement, advocacy, consensus building and transformational thinking.

Rich oversees dozens of successful placements each year and has handled more than 300 during his career including most recently for A24, The Washington Post, The Aspen Institute and The Doris Duke Foundation. These organizations play a central role in our culture – uncovering, translating and addressing the most important and compelling subjects of our time. Rich and his team identify the leaders who can deliver on their organizational and societal goals.

Prior to joining Sucherman in 2014, Rich was an executive at a boutique search firm providing high-level strategic counsel for top studios and networks and overseeing executive recruitment for a variety of roles. An early innovator in digital programming, Rich has two decades of experience developing, directing and producing content for multiple platforms and audiences.

Rich was awarded a Bachelor of Arts with honors from the State University of New York at Binghamton. He also is a proud graduate of the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Improv Program, and his live-show storytelling has earned multiple “StorySLAM” awards from The Moth.

Link to complete bio for Rich Tackenberg.

Mary Moore
VP Executive Search
mmoore@zrgpartners.com

As Vice President, executive search, Mary Moore plays a critical role in many of the transformational talent placements that make ZRG essential advisors and trusted partners to the world’s leading media, technology, and sports brands.

An industry veteran, Mary brings to each client engagement the benefit of more than 30 years of media, sports and entertainment experience, including two decades with ESPN, one of the world’s most well-respected and valued global brands. Her career has included roles in affiliate sales, consumer products, event marketing and human resources. This cross-discipline expertise uniquely positions Mary to build lasting partnerships with both talent and corporate leadership.

Prior to joining ZRG's New York office in 2013, Mary spent 21 years with ESPN in roles of increasing responsibility during a time period of explosive growth at the brand. As business director, ESPN Enterprises, she managed a variety of brand extensions, including the company’s Video Games, Book Publishing, Home Entertainment and Footage Licensing businesses.

Subsequently, as senior business director, Home Entertainment, Mary oversaw all aspects of the business from product conception and development to new title launches and marketing to managing external distribution partners. Moving to ESPN’s breakthrough X Games franchise, she was responsible for marketing that drove increased viewer awareness and event attendance, while also overseeing corporate outreach to nonprofit partners. In 2011, Mary was drafted to manage a sensitive human resources transition for Disney Publishing.

Mary earned her Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Central Connecticut State University.

Link to complete bio for Mary Moore.