David Abrams

Founding Partner & Managing Partner at Velocity Capital Management

Panelist

David is the Founder and Managing Partner of Velocity Capital Management, an operationally-intensive middle market private equity firm with significant domain expertise in the sports, media, and entertainment industries (SME), which has formed an industry-first strategic partnership with the Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation ($60B Sovereign Wealth Fund). David is an accomplished executive with a renowned blend of thirty-five years of global institutional investment experience, uniquely combining SME ownership with hands-on C-suite operating expertise to drive strategic growth, operational excellence and successful exits. David has an unparallelled track record in identifying emerging investment themes and building platforms that capitalize on these opportunities, including: (i) in the early 1990s, establishing the U.S. and European Distressed Debt and Specialty Finance businesses at Credit Suisse (and its predecessor Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette); (ii) in 2006, founding the $6B AUM Apollo European Principal Finance franchise, the first international business unit at Apollo Global Management; and (iii) in 2017, as the Chief Investment Officer, creating the Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment Investments division, a diversified proprietary investment platform embedded within one of the largest conglomerates of global sports, media and entertainment intellectual property assets. David’s SME operational and investment experience includes the visionary acquisition of Belgian-based Keemotion in 2015, its subsequent transformation into a global leader in AI-driven autonomous content capture and data monetization, and its ultimate 2021 exit to Sportradar. Additionally, in 2014 David purchased and operated the New York Yankees AAA-team, establishing the foundational asset that Endeavor later acquired to launch Diamond Baseball Holdings (Endeavor). David graduated with honors from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. David is a member of the Advisory Board of the Mount Sinai Hospital Surgical Department and serves as the longest tenured Board Member of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (S&P 500). David lives in New York with Nicole, his wife of 31 years, has three kind adult children, and holds dual citizenship in the United States and United Kingdom, having lived in London for 14 years.