Forty Under 40: William DiBlasi, Elevate
William DiBlasi
Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Elevate
Age: 38
Born: New York, N.Y.
Education: Boston College, B.A., classical studies
Family: Spouse, Kristina Shea; children, Maxwell (4) and George (2)
When William DiBlasi left Inner Circle Sports for Elevate in late 2024, the scope of his work changed in several ways.
The size of the deals he’s working on has shrunk. At Inner Circle, and Goldman Sachs before that, DiBlasi was closely involved in financings worth more than $12 billion total for high-profile sports venue and team projects across the globe. Those have included multiple Oak View Group arena projects, and new stadiums for the Cleveland Browns and Tennessee Titans. He additionally served as underwriter on more than $15 billion of non-sports municipal debt.
DiBlasi became Elevate’s first CFO when he joined to guide, broadly, the fast-growing company’s spending. Elevate has more than 400 employees working across 14 countries and providing a slew of services to clients.
With DiBlasi on board, Elevate has completed two nine-figure capital raises and a $50 million debt recapitalization with Goldman Sachs. DiBlasi identified and negotiated three acquisitions that have doubled the company’s size, including Elevate’s first foray into the Middle East with the acquisition of Rise Group. That move will bring 60 Rise employees into Elevate’s global roster and maintain Elevate offices in Riyadh and Dubai. The acquisitions of Downstream and GA Group boosted Elevate Creative’s ranks to more than 250 designers, technologists and strategists operating in North America, Europe and Asia. Expect more activity on the M&A front, DiBlasi said.
It’s otherwise similar work. Where DiBlasi (who has since been made Elevate COO) would once finance a venue using a future sales effort, he now works for the company responsible for those sales.
“To play a small role in the development of those things that move our industry forward is just really interesting,” he said.
DiBlasi, who majored in classical studies at Boston College and studied Latin and Ancient Rome, lives in the same Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan where he grew up.
