Ed Barnette
President
Ed has a sports background dating back to playing baseball for Purdue University in the early 1990’s. After graduating from Purdue with his Bachelors Degree in 1996, he promptly moved to Jacksonville, FL and accepted a teaching position and high school baseball coaching position. He was the assistant head coach and pitching coach alongside Florida Hall of Fame Baseball coach, Jack Spencer at Paxon High School while later going on to serve as the JV Head Coach and an assistant varsity coach to former professional player, Scott Marabell at Wolfson High School.
While his teaching and coaching career were taking off, he continued his education and earned his Masters Degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University and accepted a position as Assistant Principal at Eugene J. Butler Middle School. While his love for education was obvious, his love for family and business took over as he had the opportunity to join his brother, Doug Barnette’s company, Player Management International, Inc. in 2003.
Ed would quickly learn the intricacies of NASCAR and sponsorship marketing making a name for himself in the business his first month by signing the South Carolina Education Lottery to a team sponsorship and personal endorsement deal with NASCAR legend, Mike Wallace. Ed would continue to have success throughout the year culminating in helping to sign Sport Clips Haircuts to a multi year deal in their foray into NASCAR. This would propel his move to Race City USA, Mooresville, NC, in 2004 to become the PR Rep for two drivers and the Director of Business Development for Innovative Motorsports who had become the first team to secure a deal to bring Toyota into the NASCAR Truck Series.
While he got his footing in the truck series he would move forward into the NASCAR XFinity (Busch) Series and the NASCAR Cup Series in 2005 serving in various PR and marketing roles representing several drivers and teams until 2012. During this time, he also started his company, which began as Ed Barnette Enterprises and developed into ECB Sports Management through the years. He secured his first showcar contract with GEICO in 2007 and grew the business into a three vehicle full fledged experiential marketing program.
All the while he was growing his business, he and his Wife were becoming immersed in learning about MMA. They attended countless events, became friends with many fighters on a personal level, and even found sponsors for fighters. Ed advised fighters on business and marketing through the years so adding athlete management to his company was a natural transition.
Ed and his Wife reside in Panama City Beach, FL.