Strategic & Growth Advisory

Three Decades of Operating and Leadership Experience — including growth strategy, M&A, diligence, business transformation, and finance — now advising the investors, executives, and boards who need it most.

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.

Business Transformation
M&A Diligence
Finance & Operations
AI Adoption & Integration
Systems Implementation
Strategic Planning
Board Advisory
Sports & Events
Healthcare & Life Sciences
Agencies & Marketing
Professional Services
AI & Emerging Tech
Portrait of Rob Naddelman
2,000+
Employees and contractors managed at scale
1,000+
Annual events run across 150 cities
600+
MLB players whose development the company supported
~30 yrs
Building the category-leading platform, sold in 2023
About

Rob Naddelman

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.

Services

Advisory built on operating experience, not theory.

M&A Diligence & Deal Advisory

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.

Strategic Planning & Growth

Growth and expansion planning for owners and operators, from market entry and go-to-market design to financial projections and roll-up strategy.

Board & Advisory Roles

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.

Cross-Sector Operating Expertise

Deep domain experience spanning sports and events operations, healthcare and life sciences, marketing and creative agencies, professional services, and AI-enabled businesses.

Business Transformation & Systems Implementation

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.

Finance & Operations

Hands-on oversight of finance, budgeting, and day-to-day operations for PE-backed and privately held businesses moving through growth or transition.

AI Adoption & Integration

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.

Leadership Development & Executive Coaching

Culture-building and leadership development for executives and teams, drawing on experience building organizations where people, accountability, and trust drove the results.

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