the bravery to master the new - sri...his formative years at the anaheim ducks hockey franchise....
TRANSCRIPT
The Bravery to Master the New
Ari Segal is one of the most influential figures in esports. As CEO of Immortals Gaming Club, a Los Angeles-based esports and gaming company, he oversees a portfolio of high-profile teams including Immortals and MIBR (Made in Brazil). He made his name in the traditional sport of ice hockey and held key roles at the Anaheim Ducks, San Diego Gulls and Arizona Coyotes.
For all his success in ice hockey and esports, Ari Segal values his early realization that he could never feel “truly endemic” among professional sports people. “I could’ve been an executive for 20 years and I still would not have been ‘one of the guys,’” he says of his formative years at the Anaheim Ducks hockey franchise. “It was just a practical reality: I didn’t grow up playing hockey, or really around sport in an insider sense. While I played sports for fun, I was never good enough to play any professional sport, let alone hockey.”
Luckily for Segal he had the Ducks’ CEO Michael Schulman as his boss and mentor. Schulman taught him to be comfortable being a “fish out of water” among those gifted enough to play sport for a living. “There’s a fundamental shared experience among people who have that rare talent. It’s okay to be outside of that core, inner circle and to still develop
relationships and have positive impact.”Segal took that advice and went on to excel as
President of Business Operations at San Diego Gulls and then Chief Operating Officer at Arizona Coyotes. He then transitioned into esports and, as CEO of Immortals Gaming Club, has taken charge of one of the strongest companies in the sector, with investors including AEG, Lionsgate and Meg Whitman.
Since he was a child, Segal has wanted to lead. He was president of his High School class and president of his fraternity in college. “I guess I have a hunger and ambition,” he says. “I’m competitive and driven, and working towards being a CEO was working towards the northern most point in whatever industry I was going to be in.”
Learning that he could be a fish out of water and succeed was one of many lessons he has used to build the combination of resilience, risk appetite and
vision which he regards as key to strong leadership.That includes his time as a young investment
banking analyst, coping with the economic crash. Faced with added pressure to up his game, he “kind of steeled myself to just try and fight out of it”. Segal says that Wall Street experience gave him a long-lasting “level of appreciation for ‘client-ready quality,’ correctness, and attention to detail”. He also benefited from taking up distance running: “There was something about setting and achieving small goals that created a flywheel of positivity.”
After a time at McKinsey, he went to work for Schulman at the Ducks, a move which “changed my life and career”. He has benefited from an ability to be “flexible”, taking on diverse business challenges and being “willing to move geographically and willing to move industries”.
As industry demarcations are increasingly blurred, the opportunities for trailblazer leaders are greater than simply crossing from one sector to another. “It’s not either/or – rather, there’s convergence”, Segal argues. “What you’re going to find over five to ten years is that we think more about content - how is it distributed and how is it monetized - and we’re far less concerned with arbitrary lines called ‘gaming’ or ‘sport’ or ‘media’.”
“I’m competitive and driven, and working towards being a CEO was
working towards the northern most point in whatever industry I was
going to be in”
Interview with Amy ThomasChief Marketing [email protected]
Convergence Trailblazers SRI Convergence TrailblazersSRI
LATEST TRANSITION Sport Gaming
OTHER SECTORS
Management Consulting Private Equity Financial Services
BASED
USA
TRAILBLAZER EXPERIENCE
Chief Executive Officer,Immortals Gaming Club
Ari Segal
Convergence Trailblazers SRI
Mike [email protected] +44 (0)7990 581515
Jim ChaplinCEO [email protected]+44 (0)7827 828 874
Christine VendittiPartner [email protected] +1 650 906 6092
Jamie WaldronHead of Media & EntertainmentLos [email protected] +1 310 924 2960
Patrick AlbrechtCo-Head of [email protected] +41 (0)78 612 54 83
Paul ChidleyPartner, Sport Los [email protected] +44 (0)7432 735 900
David JamesHead of Sport [email protected] +44 (0)7808 639 563
Chris JordanHead of Esports & Gaming [email protected] +44 (0)7827 345 758
Alistair MilnerHead of High Performance [email protected] +44 (0)7500 105 208
Mark MoreauCo-Head of [email protected] +44 (0)7826 555 550
Adam HillierPartner, Media, Entertainment & [email protected] +44 (0)7931 127 276
Ashling O’ConnorHead of Media, Entertainment & Technology, Europe [email protected] +44 (0)7824 821 000
Beverley Le’MayHead of Sporting Goods & [email protected] +44 (0)7957 730 532
Keith McAllisterHead of Digital Media and TechnologyNew [email protected] +1 646 732 3175
Jay HusseyCEO, North America New York / [email protected] +1 650 787 3075
Glenn HorinePartner, Sport New [email protected] +1 203 814 7307
Jonathan HarrisHead of [email protected] +61 (0)413 939 993
Helen SoulsbyHead of [email protected] +65 9061 1411
Tom WattersonHead of Hong KongHong [email protected] +852 9335 5915
Europe
North America
Asia-Pacific
Contact SRIOur team work collaboratively across the globe within media, content, technology, sports, esports, and sporting goods & fashion sectors.
SRI is an executive search and talent consulting firm focused on shaping the futures of clients and candidates across the media, content, technology and sport landscape. We have deep expertise in these dynamic, disrupted and increasingly interconnected sectors.
We partner with our clients to find the game changing talent that will help them thrive. SRI has worked with a broad range of companies from content owners to fast growth consumer technology disruptors to shape their businesses.
Our services include executive search, emerging leaders search, hiring strategy, board assessment, succession planning, salary benchmarking, new market entry consulting and multi-vacancy projects.
Find out more at sriexecutive.com
SRI