State of DC Sports, Entertainment, and Esports

W. Russell (Russ) Ramsey is an American financier and philanthropist, and the founder, chairman and CEO of asset management firm Ramsey Asset Management. He previously cofounded the Washington, D.C., investment firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group in 1989, where he served as president, secretary and co-CEO through 2001.[1] He is also a founding investor in the non-profit investment organization Venture Philanthropy Partners. In 2014, Ramsey led an attempt to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to his native Washington, D.C., serving as chairman and CEO of Washington 2024. In 2016, Ramsey announced the formation of the Greater Washington Partnership, an entity consisting of CEOs and regional business leaders in the Capital Region from Baltimore to Richmond, to focus on large economic and social/community opportunities led by the business community.

Gregory A. O’Dell currently serves as the president and chief executive officer of Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District of Columbia. Events DC owns and/or operates some of the national capital’s most iconic venues, including the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and the surrounding Festival Grounds, the non-military functions of the DC Armory, the historic Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square and the Gateway DC events pavilion in the city’s Congress Heights neighborhood. The organization also built and now serves as landlord for Nationals Park, the first LEED-certified major professional sports stadium in the United States. As president and CEO, Mr. O’Dell oversees Events DC’s three lines of business: Conventions and Meetings, Sports and Entertainment, and Special Events. His primary responsibilities include oversight of the creation and promotion of hospitality, athletic, entertainment and cultural activities that generate economic and community benefits for the residents and businesses of District of Columbia. He also manages Events DC’s development portfolio, with active projects that include a new multipurpose entertainment and sports arena on the campus of St. Elizabeths East in Congress Heights, the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium/Armory campus, a comprehensive streetscaping project around the 9-block exterior of the Convention Center and the redevelopment of the Carnegie Library inclusive of a primary tenant lease for Apple’s global flagship store. As the convention and sports authority for the District, Events DC was created in 2009 through the merger of two former, independent quasi-governmental agencies – the Washington Convention Center Authority and the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission. Mr. O’Dell has the unique experience of having led both organizations as part of his public service in the District of Columbia. Prior to the merger, Mr. O’Dell served as chief executive officer and general manager of the Washington Convention Center Authority, where he was responsible for the operations of the 2.3-million-square-foot Convention Center, an award-winning facility that sees approximately one million visitors each year and has generated almost $5 billion in direct delegate spending since opening in 2003. Mr. O’Dell was also responsible for the Authority’s development efforts, having led negotiations with the selected private developer and provided oversight throughout the project lifecycle of a $520 million public-private partnership for the 1,175-room, 37-suite Marriott Marquis Washington, DC hotel. The Marriott Marquis, with a pedestrian connector to the Convention Center, broke ground in November 2010 and opened in May 2014. Before joining the Washington Convention Center Authority, Mr. O’Dell was the president and chief executive officer of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission, where he led the project team that completed the $611 million, 41,546-seat and Silver LEED-certified Nationals Park. During his tenure at the Commission, Mr. O’Dell was also responsible for the operations and maintenance of the RFK stadium and campus, inclusive of hosting various events including Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer play, marketing and sales activities, and the contract and services management related to the hosting of events at RFK. Before heading up the Commission, he was the chief development officer for the Government of the District of Columbia, where he was responsible for stimulating and promoting economic development within the District. Preceding his move to District government, Mr. O’Dell worked for the former management and IT consulting firm BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting). While there, Mr. O’Dell advanced to senior manager and practice lead for Construction Advisory Services, responsible for construction and development services to both public and private clients. After leaving BearingPoint, he served as a principal and owner of the Clemens Consulting Group, where he continued to provide consulting services to clients throughout the lifecycle of their development projects. A resident of Ward 6, Mr. O’Dell serves on the boards of the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA); the Washington, DC Economic Partnership; DC Surface Transit, Inc.; the Downtown DC BID; Destination DC; Cultural Tourism DC; Children’s National Medical Center (Washington, DC); the Capitol Riverfront BID; the National Cherry Blossom Festival and the International Association of Convention Centres (AIPC). He received a bachelor’s degree in finance and government from Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Mark D. Ein is an investor, entrepreneur and philanthropist, who has created, acquired, invested in and built a series of growth companies across a diverse set of industries over the course of his 25-year career. During this time, Mr. Ein has been involved in the founding or early stages of six companies that have been worth over one billion dollars and has led over $1.5 billion of private equity, venture capital and public company investments. Mr. Ein is the Founder, Chairman and CEO of Capitol Investment Corporation 4 (NYSE:CIC), a public acquisition company that closed its $402 million IPO in August 2017. Previously, Mr. Ein was the Chairman and CEO of Capitol 1, 2 and 3. In June 2017, Capitol 3 merged with Cision (NYSE:CISN), the leading provider of cloud-based software for the communications and PR industries, and Mr. Ein became its Vice-Chairman. He is also currently Chairman of the Board of Lindblad Expeditions (NASDAQ:LIND), a global leader in marine expedition travel and a private sector thought leader on environmental conservation, that merged in July 2015 with Capitol Acquisition Corporation 2. From 2009 until 2015, Mr. Ein was the Vice-Chairman and Co-Founder of Two Harbors Investment Corp (NYSE:TWO), one of the largest residential mortgage REITs that today has a market capitalization of approximately $4.0 billion and that was formed through a merger with Capitol 1. Mr. Ein is also the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Venturehouse Group, LLC and Leland Investment Co., holding companies that create, invest in and build growth businesses in a range of industries. Among the current majority-owned companies in the portfolios are Kastle Systems, LLC, the country’s leading provider of building and office security systems acquired in January 2007 and VSGi, a nationwide provider of videoconferencing solutions acquired in 2001. Mr. Ein is Chairman of both companies. Mr. Ein is the Founder and Owner of the Washington Kastles WTT franchise that has won the league championship six of its ten years since its founding and set the record for the longest winning streak in US pro team sports history winning 34 straight matches from 2011 through 2013. In September 2018, Mr. Ein purchased an Overwatch League Team bringing the premier global esports league to Washington, DC. Also, in 2018, Mr. Ein acquired the Washington City Paper, the renowned weekly paper serving the Washington, DC metropolitan area since 1981. Mr. Ein has been a member of the World Economic Forum since 2016, and has served on the Board of Directors of Soho House since September 2018. A native of the Washington area, he actively supports many community, charitable and cultural organizations and currently serves on the boards of the DC Public Education Fund (raising $120 million of philanthropic support for DC Public Schools since he became Chairman in 2010), the United States Tennis Association (USTA) (where he is a Vice President of the Board), the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, International Tennis Hall of Fame, DC College Access Program (DC-CAP), and DC Policy Center (Co-Founder). He has won numerous awards including the Washington Business Hall of Fame 2018 Laureates Award, Washington DC Business Leader of the Year from the Chamber of Commerce, the Jefferson Award (the nation’s highest honor for public service), Washington Business Journal Top Corporation for Philanthropy (Small Companies), Washington Business Journal Power 100, Entrepreneur of the Year Awards from Ernst and Young and the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE). In September 2009, Washington DC Mayor Adrian Fenty presented Mr. Ein with the Key to the City, highlighting not only his Washington Kastles success on the court, “but for their commitment to the District’s communities and our youth.” Prior to starting his firm, Mr. Ein worked for The Carlyle Group, Brentwood Associates and Goldman Sachs. He received his BS in Economics with a concentration in finance from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and his MBA from The Harvard Business School.