One of the largest Summer Olympics NGBs, USAC under new leadership and vision is a company experiencing tremendous growth using a tailwind of bike sales and participation being up over 100% during Covid. SMC oversees media rights and strategy and has been retained to seek commercial partnerships in the market. With four Olympic disciplines—Road, Track, Mtn Bike, and BMX—USAC athletes will compete for a medal on every day of the Olympics. Stateside, over 10,000 competitors will compete for a prestigious National Championship in all disciplines and ages from Teenager to Over 75.

Launched in 2018 as the NGB for the largest action sport discipline in the World, SMC has been working with the Organization from the start on commercial and media rights issues but also other NGB challenges that Jaquet has been able to lend expertise on with over 10 years involved in the Olympic Movement.  Jaquet landed USAS’s first non-endemic partnership with Toyota and continues to activate against that contract with a soon-to-be-launched documentary, “USA Skateboarding Road to Tokyo presented by Toyota” set to appear on NBC Sports this year.  With 12 medals up for grabs in Tokyo next summer, this NGB is poised to really break out BIG.

From the Dream Team to last year’s World Cup, the most-watched International basketball tournament of all-time, FIBA oversees inarguably the world’s 2nd favorite sport to Soccer/Futbol. Assets include quadrennial Men’s and Women’s World Cup Tournaments, Continental Cup Championships, and exclusive play-in Tournaments to the Olympics and World Cups, all seen globally by over 1 BILLION TV viewers. SMC has been retained to represent these commercial rights in the U.S.

A 20-year history of event management and live video productions was re-launched with Jaquet’s leadership added in 2018. SMC is the partner and business development arm of the company, representing a host of highly competent Project Managers, Marketing and Communications Directors, and event management crews that activate partnerships for dozens of clients. Capabilities in event management, live video and television production, social media and content creation, and much more.

Jaquet negotiated the Lead U.S. Event Operations Agency contract for Formula E’s Brooklyn event set to take place Summer, ’21. Oversight and management of the massive track and event footprint is the primary role for ’21 with an eye on expansion in the States in the near future. As Formula E looks to make big strides in their awareness and business interests in the States, SMC is helping them along the way.

Launching in Winter ’21, Natural Selection is snowboarding visionary Travis Rice’s latest project that combines backcountry powder with slopestyle features in a unique format that is athlete-friendly and social media candy.  SMC has been working with the event founders on commercial rights and partnership opportunities.

Retained in 2018 when the startup rugby league was still a vision on paper, SMC build and represented the entire commercial enterprise for the League’s first two years.  The largest stride that the game of rugby has ever had in America, Jaquet landed MLR groundbreaking national media contracts with CBS Sports and ESPN, as well as local contracts with AT&T SportsNet, ROOT, and Cox.  Oversight of those contracts included production management of about 50 games over 2.5 seasons. Jaquet also negotiated the uniform kit deal with X Blades in a cash + VIK deal. The League is now stronger than ever with 13 Teams and record TV viewership on CBS for its Championship Game in 2019.  This project marked the FOURTH successful sports startup business in Jaquet’s career.

Largely credited with the creation of both the freeride and freeskiing categories that dominate the multi-billion dollar global ski industry today, FREEZE Magazine first published in 1997, adapted from a reality show television script Jaquet had crafted about his friends and former college roommates living in Squaw Valley. The magazine became the voice for the Freeskiing Movement, creating not just a category of skis, but an entire youth movement that pulled the sport out of irrelevancy.  The 8 Volumes published still stand today as the most unique, fun, and revolutionary action sports media content ever created.  Jaquet served as Founder and Publisher, launched several ancillary businesses, and navigated ownership changes from Times Mirror to Tribune to AOL-Time Warner to Time, Inc.

Launched as the first freeskiing only competition in the World in 1998, for 10 years served as the king-making event in skiing. The Open remains THE reason that freeskiing first became an X Games discipline and then in 2014, part of the Olympic Games. The Open quickly became a gathering point for the entire young ski community, both competitors from around the world but also the Industry. It was also the first non-ski racing event to land on national cable with runs on ESPN and TBS.  Formats and judging new to skiing and ski competition first pioneered at the Open laid the groundwork for everything that exists in the sport today. Sadly, the mandatory grab off the last jump rule in Skiercross did not last.

Launched in 2010, the revolutionary format and judging system pioneered by Rob Dyrdek is one of the two Olympic disciplines in the Tokyo Olympics. Retained to maximize the commercial aspects of skateboarding’s Olympic debut, Jaquet landed SLS a media rights deal at NBC Sports and an event hosting agreement with MGM Resorts and the Mandalay Bay Arena. Of course, the winds of Covid canceled the work that was put together, but in a very short amount of time, Jaquet was able to lead the property into very meaningful conversations in the marketplace with Olympic sponsors and through his Olympic experience and network, guide the property towards future success.

Launched in 2004, Jaquet joined in 2005 in a revenue and partnership development role. Charged with creating revenue opportunities for the fledgling cable network and 180+ athletic department websites, Jaquet created the first-ever Collegiate Championship broadcasts for action sports, paintball, and beach volleyball, called the Collegiate Nationals. He served on the management and product team for March Madness On Demand, the first time the NCAA Tournament was streamed online. And he managed Coca-Cola’s investment and advertising on the Network, launching a Powerade Intramurals program on 50 campuses that brought a cups and coolers activation to intramural programs for the first time ever. Eventually would lead the sales team after the successful sale to CBS Sports, delivering quarter by quarter YOY growth despite being constantly outgunned by competitors with better rights, programming, and distribution.

Successfully launched out of a pitch meeting with Chick Fil A, for two seasons CSTV then CBS College Sports Network would broadcast LIVE from the CBS SEC Game of the Week, putting the Network at the heart of the collegiate football landscape each Saturday in the South. From creating the idea, pitch, and then coordinating programming, production, and sponsorship elements for the program, the formula of this show would quickly launch other on-site studio and sponsor-supported programs at the Final Four, Super Bowl, SEC Championship, and more.

The re-launch of CSTV’s Collegiate Nationals under CBS Sports’ ownership saw this property originally created by and then managed throughout by Jaquet grow to new heights. The event platform also was a key launch vehicle for the most-anticipated video game console launch of all-time, Xbox 360. Also served as a key sponsor activation element for Jack in the Box and was a wholly integrated platform for many other brands and the key differentiator in a crowded sports cable landscape. The Alt Games would create the groundwork for the NCAA to later sanction beach volleyball as a D1 Sport.

While under CSTV and leading business development for the first-ever NCAA Tournament streaming event to event activation programs with Allstate and Coca-Cola at the Final Four to the original idea and sponsorship of March Madness Central (the first studio show that bounced from live game to live game, a format that would later be emulated with RedZone Channel, Feature Groups and Amen Corner at The Masters, and MLB Central), Jaquet took ideas to reality through sponsorship support and never taking “No” for an answer. The original creation of the now famous Coke Zero Concert at the Final Four was a programming partnership and sponsorship activation platform co-created by Jaquet and MELT’s Vince Thompson. 

As Chief Marketing Officer, Jaquet headed up Sponsorship Sales, Marketing, Licensing, and Media Rights and Operations for the most successful Winter Olympic National Governing Body. U.S. Ski and Snowboard oversees 13 Teams across 7 disciplines–Alpine Skiing, Cross Country, Freeskiing, Freestyle, Jumping, Nordic Combined, and Snowboarding. The 7 sports represent 50% of the available medals at the Winter Olympics.

During his 5-year tenure, Jaquet grew the sponsorship revenue by over 65% and negotiated directly with NBC a transformational media deal that more than doubled the yearly television viewership and improved the financial situation of the company by more than $11m. After taking over in 2012 and inheriting less than $14m in future dollars under contract, U.S. Ski and Snowboard had over $40m on the books upon his departure.

FREEZE Magazine was a youth-market ski magazine credited with creating the“freeskiing” category in 1997 and changing the face of skiing forever.

Absolutely a career highlight, in February 2016, after years of negotiation and dealmaking at the highest levels of Fenway Sports Group and the Red Sox, Fenway Park hosted arguably the biggest and most influential ski and snowboard event in history, the Polartec Fenway Big Air. Over 30,000 fans jammed the iconic Fenway Park in an event that had the highest TV rating of any non-Olympic broadcast in the past 25 years and generated over 350 MILLION global impressions led by huge social media numbers. This was originally Jaquet’s idea that again was driven by sheer determination and great dealmaking to make it a reality.

FREEZE Magazine was a youth-market ski magazine credited with creating the“freeskiing” category in 1997 and changing the face of skiing forever.

FREEZE Magazine was a youth-market ski magazine credited with creating the“freeskiing” category in 1997 and changing the face of skiing forever.