The Milwaukee Bucks announced the addition of Giacomo Fallucca, chief executive officer of Palermo Villa Inc., to the Bucks’ ownership team.
“We’re proud to add Milwaukee native and longtime Bucks partner Giacomo Fallucca to the amazing group of leaders that have joined the Bucks ownership team,” said Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry. “With his strong roots in Milwaukee and his active commitment to the community, we’re grateful to have him involved in our effort to build the Bucks into the best franchise in the NBA and a catalyst for growth in Wisconsin.”
Fallucca’s parents immigrated to Milwaukee and opened Palermo Villa restaurant in the east side neighborhood in 1964. What began as a community bakery offering authentic Italian pizza has grown into one of the leading names in the frozen pizza industry. The Milwaukee-based company has expanded over the decades and now employs more than 600 workers. Palermo’s currently sponsors the Palermo’s Courtside Club in the BMO Harris Bradley Center, which offers Bucks fans pregame, in-game and postgame food and beverage service.
“Milwaukee is a great city, and the Bucks are an important part of what makes our community so special. Being home to an NBA franchise not only makes Milwaukee exciting for fans, it helps drive economic growth and strengthens our community,” Fallucca said. “I’m proud to join Marc, Wes (Edens) and the many other terrific community leaders to help usher in a new era of Bucks basketball.”
The Milwaukee Bucks last week 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.
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.
