Elevate Taps Warriors CCO Kitts to Lead Corporate Partnerships

Global sports agency Elevate has hired Warriors CCO Mike Kitts as President of Global Sales & Solutions, specifically to head its corporate partnership pursuits, the company announced Friday. Over the course of Kitts’ 13-plus years with the Warriors, he oversaw the franchise’s sales, development, insights and revenue strategy -- a highlight being the launch of Chase Center’s founding partnership platform. That led to deals with Accenture, Adobe, Google Cloud, PepsiCo, United Airlines, Verizon and the club’s naming-rights partner JPMorganChase. During his tenure, the Warriors were an annual league leader in corporate sponsorship acquisitions, with a portfolio that included brands such as Rakuten and a recent jersey patch deal with IREN Limited starting in 2026-27 worth a reported $50M annually.

‍

At Elevate -- which in only eight years has acquired 1,000 active clients across sports, entertainment, culture, attractions, culinary, and hospitality -- Kitts is expected to support an existing partnerships group looking to accelerate business with sports teams, leagues, venues and rights holders. In announcing the hire, CEO Al Guido -- who said “our business is growing quickly, and so are the needs of our clients” -- referenced Kitts’ “creativity, discipline and relationship-first approach.” Elevate did not use a search firm to identify Kitts, who will report directly to Guido.