Mark Patricof

Mark Patricof is a serial entrepreneur and media executive with extensive leadership and operational experience in the finance, entertainment, technology, and sports industries. A seasoned investment banker, he has advised and invested in a wide range of leading traditional and digital media and entertainment companies and transactions. He previously served as Managing Director and Co-Head of the Technology, Media, & Telecom practice at Houlihan Lokey, a publicly traded global investment bank. Notable transactions while there include advising on the highly publicized bankruptcy auction sale of Gawker Media to Univision for $135 million, and the sale of iconic concert venue Webster Hall to AEG Presents and Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment. Mark was formerly a Co-Founder of Media and Entertainment Strategy Advisors (MESA Global), a boutique investment bank strategically acquired in 2015 by Houlihan Lokey. Founded in 2008, MESA served high-growth companies across the media and entertainment landscape, offering M&A advisory, private placement, and structured finance services. Core areas of focus included film, television, music, sports, live entertainment, and digital media, including key verticals such as games, interactive, advertising, and e-commerce. MESA advised on over 80 transactions including some of the most notable deals in the sector: Colony Capital’s acquisition of Miramax, the sale of Songza to Google, the sale of IndiaGames to Disney, structured finance transactions for Relativity and IMAX, and equity finance transactions for Blue Man Group and FanDuel. Additionally, MESA advised multiple global corporations, including Discovery Channel, Time Inc., and Viacom. In 2012 Mark launched MESA Ventures, an early stage venture fund focused on e-commerce, advertising technology and digital content. The fund invested alongside established and top-tier early stage VC firms, combining a unique data-driven ranking system with a co-investment strategy to create an “indexing” approach to seed stage investing. Mark was a Co-Founder of <kpe>, an incubator/digital studio that financed, designed, and built businesses for clients such as the BBC, CBS, Disney, Hearst, Sony and Viacom. He served as President and CEO of the company until it was sold to Omnicom. Mark began his career at Creative Artists Agency (CAA).