WME | IMG, the talent management company formed by the 2013 merger of William Morris Endeavor and International Management Group, has parted with EVP of marketing and brand solutions Doug Scott after approximately two years in that role.
You may know WME due to its minority ownership of Droga5 and its co-CEO Ari Emanuel, aka Rahm’s brother/the guy from Entourage IRL. The Droga deal went down in 2013 a few months before the organization acquired IMG for nearly $2.5 billion with the help of Silver Lake Partners in what was described as an effort to beat out chief competitor Creative Artists Agency.
At the time, the Droga5 purchase was valued at $115 million. The talent agency currently owns approximately 49 percent of the formerly independent shop.
A source confirmed today that Scott, who came on board in the summer of 2014 to run its various brand partnerships in New York, will be leaving the agency, but WME | IMG declined to comment. We hear that Scott worked with Droga5 on shared client opportunities during his tenure but did not directly oversee any operational aspects of the agency or its relationship with the larger WME organization.
Last month, WME | IMG acquired the experiential agencies Fusion Marketing and IMG Live to expand its larger marketing portfolio, and we hear that it will also be working more closely with the Droga organization moving forward as well.
Scott had a background in public relations, event marketing and branded content before joining the Ogilvy organization to lead its entertainment unit in 2006. He later launched the separate OgilvyEntertainment offering and spent more than 8 years with the WPP organization.
His role was a new one at WME | IMG when it was announced nearly two years ago. We hear that the organization will not be seeking a replacement and that its relationships with various clients will not change as a result of Scott’s departure.