RICHARD "RICK" PERNA

In his 30 years in banking, Rick has held finance roles in corporate lending, investment banking and private wealth management. Rick’s experience in the sports industry spans approximately 25 years, back to when he was a founding member of a Sports Lending Group at Societe Generale in 1997.

In 2006, Rick moved to Citigroup, where he served as Director in the Sports Finance & Advisory Group providing investment banking services including buy-side and sell-side representation, debt financings, and capital raises within the sports industry. At Citigroup, he oversaw and was responsible for transacting advisory assignments for nearly 9 years, and received the Chairman’s Award for ranking as one of the top 20 bankers in North America.

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Having focused on and specialized in sports lending & M&A since 1997, Rick brings deep transactional experience and high-level relationships across all major North American professional sports leagues as well as international leagues. Rick has been closely involved with and led some of the most notable transactions in the market including the Detroit Pistons, Fulham FC, Minnesota Wild, Miami Heat, AS Roma, Bologna FC, the Nashville Predators, Como Football Club and many others, aggregating billions in transaction value.

Rick was recognized as a Power Player in Sports Advisory in 2016 by the Sports Business Journal and Top 100 People in Finance in 2020. Rick has been requested to serve on Sports Conference Panels for SportBusiness, Spielmacher, SoccerEx and more. Rick is regularly called on as an industry expert for interviews and commentary for FON, The Deal, Sportico, JohnWallStreet, Bloomberg, etc. He is a frequent contributor to Family Office Network Magazine on the business of sports investing and as a guest speaker for the University of Michigan's Graduate School on sports valuations.

Rick is a FINRA Series 7, 66 & 79 registered representative.