The Milwaukee Bucks announced that the team has added seven additional local investors to its ownership group, and for the first time acknowledged that New York hedge fund manager Jamie Dinan is a “substantial” owner of the team.
The new members of the ownership group include Gale Klappa, CEO of Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp. and Jon Hammes, managing partner of Brookfield-based Hammes Company.
The Bucks also announced that its ownership group now also includes the Partners for Community Impact LLC, a group of Milwaukee area African-American business leaders, which includes: Michael Barber chief operating officer of GE Healthcare; Valerie Daniels-Carter co-founder, president and CEO of V&J Holding Companies; former Miller Brewing Company executive vice president Virgis Colbert; Charles Harvey, chief diversity officer and president of the Johnson Controls Foundation, and Generation Growth Capital founder and managing director Cory Nettles.
“PCI represents a historic collective of African-American community and investment-minded business leaders,” Daniels-Carter said. “We see a unique opportunity to bring together a storied local sports franchise with a group of minority business leaders who are committed to ensuring that the benefits of this economic activity reach the full community. We think the PCI partnership model will be replicated throughout the NBA, particularly as a means of diversifying the ownership of NBA franchises.”
The new owners join other local owners that the team announced in July including: Ted Kellner, founder and executive chairman of Milwaukee-based Fiduciary Management; Jim Kacmarcik, president of Grafton-based Kapco Inc.; Craig Karmazin, founder and CEO of Beaver Dam-based Good Karma Brands; Michael Kocourek, president of Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Mid Oaks Investments; Keith Mardak, chairman and CEO of Milwaukee-based Hal Leonard Corp.; and Teddy Werner, senior director of business operations for the Milwaukee Brewers.
The announcement by the Bucks also acknowledges for the first time that Dinan, a hedge fund manager and founder of York Capital Management, is also part of the ownership group with Marc Edens and Wes Lasry, who bought the team earlier this year from Herb Kohl. Dinan is a “substantial” owner of the team, said a Bucks spokesperson.
“Since I joined as an owner in July, I have already seen the huge strides we have taken on making the Bucks an integral part of the Milwaukee community,” Dinan said in a news release. “With these leaders joining the Bucks organization, the momentum on our side is undeniable. We look forward to utilizing their knowledge and expertise to build the future of Milwaukee.”
Klappa, Hammes and the Partners for Community Impact have all been approved by the NBA to be part of the Bucks ownership group, the team said.
“I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to join with such distinguished fellow owners of the Bucks franchise,” Klappa said. “The talent in the front office, on the court and throughout the ownership is second to none. All of us are united in our goal of building the Bucks organization into an economic engine for Milwaukee and Wisconsin, providing quality jobs in the community, supporting economic growth and making substantive progress on building our statewide workforce.”
“I am thrilled for the future of basketball in Milwaukee,” said Hammes. “Being home to a strong franchise will pay off in the long-term for all of our local institutions and their athletic activities. I believe we have the ownership team to do great work and am eager to take our next steps toward making the Bucks a model for other basketball teams across the country.”
