VNN Sports Names Former SportsEngine Executive Rick Ehrman as CEO
Ehrman looks to further VNN Sports’ industry leadership with focus on designing end-to-end communications solutions for America’s high schools.
Grand Rapids, MI (July 16, 2019) – VNN Sports, the comprehensive marketing and communications platform for high schools, today announced it has named former SportsEngine executive, Rick Ehrman, as CEO.
Like an app store for high school sports, VNN brings together the market’s best technology into a single platform — from the aggregation of scores, schedules, standings and statistics to fundraising, ticketing, video capture, and registration. Together, these tools further VNN’s goal to connect the pieces of high school sports and deliver the best experience for users: athletic directors, coaches, parents, athletes, fans, and the local businesses that support them.
In his role, Ehrman will focus on expanding VNN’s position as the leader in the high school sports market, leveraging a strong track record of growth, both organic and through market consolidation.
“Youth athletics is becoming more and more like collegiate and professional sports, and the people in charge are expected to be expert communicators, organizers, and facilitators,” said Ehrman. “VNN’s success working with thousands of high schools over the past decade has uniquely positioned us to deliver the core platform through which school administrators maximize their impact in this evolving role.”
With roughly 20,000 public high schools across the U.S., and eight (8) million students participating in sports, athletic directors are looking for technology solutions to more efficiently manage their day-to-day responsibilities and effectively communicate, connect and share information with athletes, parents and the community.
Prior to joining VNN Sports, Ehrman was the Head of Corporate Development for SportsEngine, during which time he helped lead the consolidation of the Youth Sports market while also identifying and executing incremental revenue sources to organically more than double the size of the business and sell controlling interest to Comcast (NBC Sports).
“With nearly 20 percent of U.S. high schools using VNN, we see a clear path to simplifying the high school athletic experience by connecting cutting-edge technology to school systems nationwide,” said Ryan Vaughn, founder and President. “Having helped SportsEngine and NBC Sports do this in club sports, Rick brings unmatched experience to our CEO role.”
“Our core objective is to not only provide the vital infrastructure that keeps athletics programs running at full tilt, but also to provide tools that allow Athletic Directors and Coaches to be on the field, or in the gym, doing what they do best, teaching kids about work ethic, teamwork, strategic thinking and camaraderie,” added Ehrman. “In fact, our multi-pronged focus to “Grow the Game” and “Keep Kids Safe” is very similar to that of the professional sports leagues and franchises, which is why we have recently identified a new group of strategic investors that will be working with VNN to help subsidize and take these tools to market by investing downstream in their very valuable fanbase. Over the next several weeks, we will be in a position to announce our partners; I’m confident this new model will revolutionize the industry and resonate in a very positive way with all constituents.”
With over 30 years working in a Finance and Business Development capacity, Ehrman will pull from his experience at General Electric, NBC Universal, Univision Communications, L4 Media Group, BlackTorch Capital, Frank N. Magid Associates, and others.
About VNN Sports
VNN is America’s largest and fastest growing high school sports communication platform. As the exclusive partner of nearly 20% of all US high school athletic communities, VNN connects the high school sports experience onto a single platform for 19-million passionate parents, athletes, fans, software providers, and athletic professionals across the country.
