Birmingham, AL - On August 1st, 2022, Rising Coaches announced Adam Gordon has taken the role of Vice President of Athletics for Renaissance Search and Consulting. Gordon is stepping down as CEO, but will remain a member of the executive team along with Andy Farrell and Brandon Rosenthal. A national search is underway for Rising Coaches’ next Chief Operating Officer.
“I am humbled, honored and excited to join the Renaissance family,” said Gordon. “Herb Courtney and his team have done an incredible job of building a brand that represents excellence in the Search and Consulting space.”
"I'm so excited for Adam and his family with this new opportunity for him,” said Andy Farrell, Co-founder of Rising Coaches. “As CEO, he has helped grow Rising Coaches into a staple of the basketball coaching world. While he will be missed as our CEO, his role as our co-founder and his vision for Rising Coaches will still be embedded in our day-to-day operations and big picture strategy as our company continues to evolve and grow."
Rising Coaches recently celebrated its 12th anniversary with co-founders Gordon and Farrell on hand. Gordon co-founded Rising Coaches in 2010 along with Andy Farrell and has served as the company’s CEO since 2019.
“I am incredibly proud of the work we have done at Rising Coaches,” said Gordon. “Rising Coaches is and always will be incredibly important to me. I feel great about the position the company is in and our vision for the future. I look forward to supporting new leadership for our organization and am confident that new blood in the organization will help lead us to bigger and better things.”
During his time as CEO, Gordon created a membership model for Rising Coaches, which boasts over 1,500 members. He also created the Rising Coaches Podcast. It has over 350,000 unique downloads. In addition, he helped maintain the company’s social media channels, which garner approximately 2 million impressions per month.
In 2020 Gordon founded the 501c3 Rising Coaches Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Alliance (DEI Alliance) when their group partnered with 12 different social justice and minority coaching organizations with the goal of impacting change for equality in the coaching profession. The Alliance has successfully executed several initiatives to help provide interview training for minority coaching candidates, create a pathway for former athletes to break into the coaching profession, a Women’s Empowerment Series and its national Equality and Inclusion campaign which saw over 150 NCAA Division I institutions participate in raising awareness for equality issues on their campuses.
Under Gordon’s leadership, the company secured naming rights for the 2021 Rising Coaches Classic, a Division I tournament hosted at the College of Charleston.
Gordon also led Rising Coaches Search and Consulting, which conducted over 25 executive searches for various head coaching, athletic administrative and corporate positions.
