NEW YORK, USA // As Group Publisher of the Sports Illustrated Group, Brendan Ripp oversees a collection of globally-renowned sports brands – Sports Illustrated, SI Kids, Golf and FanSided – and their portfolios of products and services, on behalf of Time Inc. He took on this role in January 2014 and since, the Group has undergone a sweeping expansion via M&A, innovation, creative partnerships as well as a complete reorientation of the advertising sales strategy. Brendan also serves on the executive boards for 120 Sports, the groundbreaking OTT sports network which is a Time Inc. joint venture with MLBAM, the NHL, the PGA, Silver Chalice and Campus Insiders; and SI Play a new Time Inc. business devoted to Youth Sports.
Over the past 18 months, the Sports Illustrated Group has launched multiple new franchises such as Campus Insiders, and Sports Illustrated Films. The company acquired FanSided, one of the sports industry’s fastest growing digital networks and premiered the aforementioned 120 Sports. Further, the experiential marketing operation has been completely reoriented to focus on consumer events including the first two public-facing events in SI Swimsuit history. All of this has deepened the group’s reach among the most important demographics and expanded the revenue pie significantly.
Brendan joined SPORTS ILLUSTRATED after successful leadership terms at FORTUNE, TIME and MONEY, where he established consistent revenue gains and financial performance milestones while expanding each brand’s consumer footprint through innovation and cross-brand collaboration.
At FORTUNE, as Vice President of Advertising Sales, Brendan drove revenue growth and the continued expansion of FORTUNE’s robust conference business, which hosted its most successful FORTUNE Global Forum in Chengdu, China. Also, the 2013 FORTUNE 500 issue was the largest since 2008 and had the best ad performance of any FORTUNE issue since 2004. At TIME, where he was Publisher, Brendan was responsible for growing TIME’s business across new media platforms and for fostering TIME’s reputation as a leading advertising solutions partner. In April 2010, Brendan helped launch TIME’s iPad app, the first iPad app for Time Warner, which was followed by the hugely successful LIFE Photo App. As Publisher of MONEY he was instrumental in launching multiplatform, cross-title partnerships with THIS OLD HOUSE and REAL SIMPLE.
Brendan began his Time Inc. career in 2000 as a Junior Sales Representative for TIME, and over the next decade rose through the organization becoming the publication’s youngest Publisher (33) since founding editor Henry Luce. Before joining Time Inc., Brendan worked in JWT’s Global Account Management group, developing and coordinating television, print, digital and outdoor advertising campaigns that ran in more than 20 countries.
Brendan graduated from Gettysburg College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Business Management and Economics. In 2014, Gettysburg College President, Janet Riggs, presented Brendan with the 2014 Young Alumni Achievement Award. He is an active board member of the International Advertising Association’s New York Chapter, a member of the NY Ad Club and Financial Communications Society. He is also an active fundraiser for Concern Worldwide. Concern Worldwide is an international humanitarian organization which currently works in 30 countries, implementing projects to ensure everyone worldwide has access to education, healthcare, livelihood security, and emergency relief.