Rob Naddelman advises private equity investors, operators, and boards on diligence, growth strategy, M&A, business transformation, finance and operations, AI adoption and integration, and systems implementation, among other disciplines. He draws on three decades building and running organizations across sports and events, healthcare and life sciences, marketing and creative agencies, professional services, and AI-enabled businesses.
Rob earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a four-year varsity baseball player, a two-time All-Ivy selection, and a member of an Ivy League Championship team that competed in the College World Series Midwest Regional. He was later inducted into the Penn Baseball Hall of Fame.
Rob served as President of Factory Athletics — home to Baseball Factory and Softball Factory — and built it over nearly three decades into the national market leader in sports talent development, before selling the business to Unrivaled Sports in 2023. Under his leadership the company grew to more than 2,000 employees and contractors, ran over 1,000 events a year in 150 cities, and helped develop more than 600 future MLB players.
He went on to serve as COO and Chief Business Officer of Imre, an award-winning, private-equity-backed marketing and healthcare communications agency, where he led a multi-year transformation of the agency into a pharma-focused agency of record — overseeing Finance, HR, IT, Operations, Editorial, Resourcing, and Project Management. As part of that transformation, he modernized the agency's systems, streamlined its workflows, and became a certified Agile Scrum Master along the way. He combined agile workflow, AI adoption and integration, data integration, and KPI measurement to drive measurable time and cost savings across the agency, and worked closely with key team members to explore how custom AI agents could improve and expand client delivery. He also helped lead the effort to build a custom solution for brand AI visibility, developed in partnership with established market leaders. Throughout, he kept human inclusion and coaching at the center of that work, so the technology served the people using it rather than the other way around. That work sits alongside his sports and events background and gives him direct operating experience in healthcare and life sciences, and in marketing and creative agencies, in addition to professional services and sports and events organizations.
Rob is also active in YPO (Young Presidents' Organization), where he has served his chapter as Chapter Chair, Strategic Planning Officer, and Treasurer. The strategic planning process he built became a blueprint adopted by other chapters, and in his year as Chapter Chair, his leadership helped the chapter win Best Large Chapter of the Northeast Region. He now operates RAN Consulting, advising private equity firms, operators, and boards on strategy, diligence, growth, business transformation, finance and operations, and other disciplines. His experience spans sports and events, healthcare and life sciences, agencies and marketing, professional services, and AI-enabled businesses.
Commercial and operational diligence for investors evaluating targets across sports and events, healthcare and life sciences, agencies, and technology-enabled businesses — management depth, unit economics, and exit thesis.
Growth and expansion planning for owners and operators, from market entry and go-to-market design to financial projections and roll-up strategy.
Ongoing board and advisory engagements for portfolio companies and founders who need an operator who has scaled a category leader and led a PE-backed agency transformation.
Deep domain experience spanning sports and events operations, healthcare and life sciences, marketing and creative agencies, professional services, and AI-enabled businesses.
Leading organizations through operational change — restructuring workflows, standing up new systems, integrating and implementing AI, and aligning finance, IT, and resourcing around a new operating model.
Hands-on oversight of finance, budgeting, and day-to-day operations for PE-backed and privately held businesses moving through growth or transition.
Embedding agile workflow, AI adoption, data integration, and KPI measurement into how a business runs to cut time and cost — including custom AI agents that expand client delivery and custom brand AI visibility solutions built with established market partners — without losing the human coaching that makes change stick.
Culture-building and leadership development for executives and teams, drawing on experience building organizations where people, accountability, and trust drove the results.
"Rob is one of the strongest agency leaders I have worked with. He is not just an operator — he is a culture builder who happens to be excellent at running the business. That combination is rare, and it is exactly what makes him a natural CEO."
"In my 30+ years in the industry, under many different leaders, Rob stands out as the best I've had the privilege to work with. I can recommend him without hesitation as an exceptional leader, mentor, and business builder, and as someone whose integrity is evident in every decision he makes."
"If you're fortunate in your career, you'll have the opportunity to work with a great manager or a great mentor. I was fortunate to find both in Rob. As our COO, Rob was a true professional and a leader I deeply respected."
"Rob is smart, kind, and genuine, which is a rare combo in any leader. He understands how a business actually runs, from the numbers to the people, and then gets to work making it happen."
"I've had the pleasure of working with Rob as a dotted-line manager, and I've been consistently impressed by the impact he's made on our agency. He came in and quickly took the time to understand our industry, our business, and — most importantly — our people. That ability to listen, learn, and build trust has made him an incredible source of company culture and morale."
"Rob is the kind of COO who can strengthen an organization operationally while building trust, accountability, and a team that wants to succeed together. I'd work for Rob again in a heartbeat. Hands down."
"Rob introduced a multi-year strategic planning process that forced the Executive Committee to think and plan 3-5 years out. He also introduced metrics that our chapter still uses today to track the health of our overall chapter and its events."
"Rob is the best executive leader I have ever worked for. As COO of imre, he is an exceptional business leader. He transformed and modernized agency operations in a short amount of time, always keeping his team focused on the north star through many obstacles. He is simply the best!"
"The framework he built for our YPO chapter ended up being recognized as a best practice and has since been used by other chapters across YPO. Rob is steady, collaborative, and always focused on impact. Any team would be lucky to have his leadership and strategic insight."