TKO Group, parent company of WWE and UFC, has hired Dean Garfield as senior VP of government affairs. Garfield most recently held a similar role at Netflix before he exited the streamer last fall.
In the newly created role at TKO, Garfield will lead the company’s government affairs activities globally, reporting to Seth Krauss, TKO Group’s chief administrative officer and senior counsel to the board of directors and senior management. Garfield’s appointment was effective June 16.
Garfield leads a team responsible for public policy initiatives and political engagement and that also support TKO’s subsidies and incentives efforts.
“Dean’s extensive public policy experience will be integral to supercharging TKO’s government relations strategy, including strengthening our engagement with governments to bring our marquee events to fans in all regions of the world,” Krauss said in announcing Garfield’s hiring. “Our existing international partnerships with Western Australia, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, as well as domestically with Minnesota, New Jersey, and California, demonstrate the significant demand for our properties’ live events, and we expect, with Dean’s leadership, to expand our growth in this area.”
Garfield said in a statement provided by the company, “I am excited to be joining TKO and for the opportunity to share with governments what we know to be true: People all around the world view sports and live entertainment as central to their lives, to building community, and to delivering economic impact.”
Garfield brings more than 20 years of public policy experience to TKO, including 15 years in media and entertainment. Most recently, Garfield was Netflix’s VP of public policy, where he served as a key member of the executive team, led global government affairs and pursued incentive packages worldwide.
Prior to joining Netflix in 2019, Garfield was president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council from 2009-19. Before that, he was EVP and chief strategic officer for the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and VP of legal affairs for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Garfield was appointed by President Barack Obama to the White House’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations and was reappointed to the role by President Donald Trump during Trump’s first term. He was also appointed to the Department of Transportation’s Advisory Committee on Automation.
Garfield received a law degree from New York University School of Law and a master’s degree in international affairs and public administration from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, where he was a Ford-Rockefeller as well as a Root-Tilden-Snow scholar, respectively. He received a bachelor’s degree in English language and literature from Middlebury College.
TKO Group was formed in 2023 through the merger of UFC and WWE. Endeavor Group Holdings currently owns 61.7% of TKO’s outstanding stock. Endeavor was taken private earlier this year in a $25 billion deal with private-equity firm Silver Lake; Endeavor Group is the parent of talent agency giant WME Group.
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