Range Media, the management and production company that’s quickly establishing a foothold in Hollywood, is expanding its sports division.
Range, led by CEO Pete Micelli, said Monday that it has acquired veteran agent Lowell Taub’s boutique sports company Stoked Management Group. Taub will join Range as chief revenue officer and head of athlete marketing for the sports unit. All five employees of Stoked are moving over to the Santa Monica-based company.
Taub launched Stoked Management nearly at the same time that former CAA, UTA and WME agents decamped to found Range in 2020 during the pandemic when production was shut down in Hollywood. Stoked touts a roster of Olympic stars and pro athletes in action sports, including surfer John Florence, Peloton instructor Kendall Toole and track athlete Gabrielle Thomas, who will move over to Range.
“Lowell is a uniquely talented leader with an impeccable reputation,” stated Range Sports co-presidents Will Funk and Greg Luckman. “We are excited to have him and the rest of the Stoked team lead our Athlete Marketing practice and accelerate the growth of our broader Range Sports platform.”
Taub, who founded GFHF Marketing & Management in 2005, sold that firm two years later to CAA and spent 13 years at the Century City-based talent agency, including as head of sports endorsements. Other clients have included Olympian swimmer Ryan Lochte and ski star Bode Miller. Of his new deal, Taub added, “I have been inspired by Range’s growth during the same period and I could not be more thrilled to join such an impressive team.”
Range, launched with financial backing from Steven A. Cohen’s Point72 Ventures, is part of a wave of management firms that have formed in recent years amid a fracturing (and consolidating) Hollywood representation landscape. Last year, A+E Networks invested in Range as part of a production and content partnership deal.
In June, the company made a deal for production shingle Automatik and enlisted Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Fred Berger as partners and co-presidents of film and production, expanding Range’s producing to projects including Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, Oz Perkins’ Longlegs, Jonathan Entwistle’s Fred & Ginger and James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown.
