Doug Fillis

Doug Fillis leads Accelerate Sports Ventures. Fillis blends his experience of working on campus in athletics administration with his time in pro sports and in the agency world to provide a one-of-a-kind skill set to support Name, Image and Likeness and Multi-Media Rights clients. Additionally, his involvement in $1B of multi-media and brand partnership agreements provides the foundation for Accelerate to deliver comprehensive solutions for the future of college athletics.

Prior to launching Accelerate, Fillis was a member of the executive leadership team at IMG College responsible for its $400M multi-media rights business. Fillis oversaw and transformed the East region significantly increasing sales, revenue, and profitability. Fillis not only led the sales group but locked arms with the sales team and personally negotiated $17M in new business. Fillis also led on rights acquisition, negotiating the only new A5 agreement that IMG College secured in five years and extended seven other agreements while adding over 60 years of partnership to the portfolio.

Before joining IMG College, Fillis helped launch New York City FC. The expansion soccer team owned by Manchester FC and the New York Yankees. He spearheaded all of the marketing, branding and sales efforts leading into the inaugural season. The club secured over $20M in multi-media revenue, delivered eight founding partnerships, set single game and season records for merchandise sales and landed the largest kit deal in league history.

Fillis spent the first eight years of his career on campus in leadership roles with the United States Military Academy and Rutgers University, respectively. While at West Point, Fillis led the fundraising arm to all-time heights, created premium hospitality and tailgate businesses, worked on bringing the Army-Notre Dame football game to Yankee Stadium and collaborated with Navy athletics on the business plan around the Army-Navy game that delivered a $55M agreement. At Rutgers, Fillis worked on the leadership team under Tim Pernetti that delivered Rutgers’ transformative move into the Big Ten Conference, $65M IMG College agreement, $100M athletics fundraising campaign, creation of the premium tailgate experience Block R Party, and first-of-their-kind deals at Rutgers in apparel, F&B, naming rights and malt beverage.

Fillis holds a B.A. from Sacred Heart University, M.A. from Iona College and a Graduate Certificate from NYU. Since 2011, Fillis has been a member of the NYU adjunct faculty in the Robert Preston Tisch Institute for Global Sport, and in 2016 was named Alumnus of Year by the Sports Business Society.

Fillis is married to his wife Jessica. Together they are the proud parents of Harper, Emerson and Wes and reside in Bergen County, New Jersey.