About Boardroom

Boardroom is a sports, media and entertainment brand co-founded by Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman and focused on the intersection of sports and entertainment. Boardroom’s flagship media arm features premium video/audio, editorial, daily and weekly newsletters, showcasing how athletes, executives, musicians and creators are moving the business world forward. Boardroom’s ecosystem encompasses B2B events and experiences (such as its renowned NBA and WNBA All-Star events) as well as ticketed conferences such as Game Plan in partnership with CNBC. Our advisory arm serves to consult and connect athletes, brands and executives with our broader network and initiatives.

Recent film and TV projects also under the Boardroom umbrella include the Academy Award-winning Two Distant Strangers (Netflix), the critically acclaimed scripted series SWAGGER (Apple TV+) and Emmy-nominated documentary NYC Point Gods (Showtime).

Boardroom’s sister company, Boardroom Sports Holdings, features investments in emerging sports teams and leagues, including the Major League Pickleball team, the Brooklyn Aces, NWSL champions Gotham FC, and MLS’ Philadelphia Union.

All Rights Reserved. 2025.

The List: 50 Names In The Boardroom

Sports, Media, Music, Style, Hospitality: The 50 Names In The Boardroom

The December Cover Story spotlights what we’re calling “The 50 Names in the Boardroom.” It’s not a ranking of the most powerful people, or the most successful or famous people. We applied the same filter and lens we use as a brand on the daily to decide what’s relevant to the BOARDROOM to curate our end-of-year list. The names span athletes, designers, musicians, entrepreneurs, executives, directors, actors, and restaurateurs.

Each person either had a standout 2025 or we expect them to have a great 2026. Our mission is to inform and entertain while staying true to the curation that built this company. To bring this project to life, we partnered with artist Neil Jamieson to create the illustrations and printed 1,000 limited-edition issues. Next year, we’re really betting on print. The ability to touch and feel something has more value today than it has in decades. We hope you enjoy what we’ve put together and share our pride in the selections that close out a wild year in a wild world.

Shohei Ohtani
The thing about Shohei Ohtani is that he doesn’t compete with other players; he competes with history.
Bad Bunny
Music

Bad Bunny

Every generation gets one artist who rewrites what a genre means. For 2025, that artist is Bad Bunny.
Napheesa Collier
The story of 2025 women’s basketball starts with a simple truth: Napheesa Collier stopped asking for permission.
Anthony Edwards
Anthony Edward’s rise didn’t follow the usual industry plan — no slow build, no polished rollout. He arrived loud, raw, confident, and by 2025, unstoppable.
Hailey Bieber
Influence has changed dramatically over the past decade. Very few have exemplified that better than Hailey Bieber.
Michael B. Jordan
Fame goes quick. Vision doesn’t. Michael B. Jordan spent 2025 proving that distinction matters.
Paige Bueckers
Paige Bueckers isn’t the next anything. She’s the proof of concept for what’s possible when talent, timing, and tenacity finally sync.
Scottie Scheffler
Scottie Scheffler’s 2025 season featured no flash, no drama, just precision so relentless it felt inevitable. In a sport addicted to spectacle, he made consistency look revolutionary.
Chase Infiniti
Chase Infiniti has undeniably become one of the most exciting new entertainers of the year, a force that has quickly captivated critics and audiences alike through a series of high-profile, standout performances.
The Safdie Brothers
No one films tension like the Safdies. It isn’t drama; it’s adrenaline disguised as narrative. 2025 was the year their chaos theory went global.
Ronnie Fieg
Hospitality

Ronnie Fieg

Ronnie Fieg’s KITH empire now sits somewhere between brand and belief system — collaboration as religion.
Travis Scott
Spectacle became architecture the moment Travis Scott touched it.
Kwame Onwuachi
Hospitality

Kwame Onwuachi

Kwame Onwuachi’s taste comes with footnotes. With Bronx roots and global taste, his food carries the same complexity as a great album.
Salehe Bembury
The sneaker world used to move on hype; Salehe Bembury moves on intention.
Emma Grede + Kristin Juszczyk
Success begets success. Just ask Skims cofounder Emma Grede and fashion designer Kristin Juszczyk.
Doja Cat
Music

Doja Cat

Doja Cat spent 2025 dismantling her own fame in real time — and somehow made it look purposeful.
Kai Cenat
Media

Kai Cenat

The Internet found its first rock star. Kai Cenat’s streams are part concert, part sitcom, part cultural event.
Martine Rose
Nothing about her work asks permission. Martine Rose’s designs walk that thin line between chaos and couture.
Elliott Grainge
You don’t hear his voice, but you see his vision. Elliott Grainge runs 10K Projects like a start-up disguised as a label — agile, data-literate, ruthless in taste.
Zach Bryan
Zach Bryan’s lyrics read like text messages from the soul — unfiltered, unpolished, undeniable.
Jerry Lorenzo
No designer has redefined modern American luxury more than Jerry Lorezno.
IShowSpeed
Fame used to need polish. IShowSpeed proved it only needs presence.
Michael Rubin
Michael Rubin turned Fanatics from a merch company into an empire that moves like a lifestyle brand.
Taylor Rooks
Access used to mean proximity; Taylor Rooks redefined it as empathy.
The Alchemist
The Alchemist has turned longevity into its own aesthetic. 2025 was another year of immaculate work.
Clipse
Music

Clipse

Pusha and Malice sidestepped nostalgia and delivered an album produced by Pharrell that sounded like it came from the year 2050.
Pat Mcafee
Pat McAfee’s show moves like a sports talk circus and a boardroom meeting in one.
Carlos Alcaraz
Most athletes just play to win. Carlos Alcaraz plays for transcendence.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has turned minimalism into mystique, gliding through defenders and fashion weeks with the same composure.
Ryan Clark
Some analysts explain, Ryan Clark lives it. His words carry the weight of experience and the rhythm of a verse.
Alex Cooper
Alex Cooper flipped Call Her Daddy from chaos to empire and, in the process, created a blueprint for creator evolution.
Josh Allen
Sports

Josh Allen

Josh Allen plays quarterback with the improvisation of an URL battle rapper — big plays, bigger imagination.
Speedy Morman
Speedy doesn’t chase viral moments; he creates them.
A’ja Wilson
When you talk about modern-day GOATs, make sure South Carolina’s own A’ja Riyadh Wilson is on the list.
Ryan Coogler
Ryan Coogler’s work marries emotion with mythology, crafting films that feel both ancestral and futuristic.
Paul Skenes
There’s fast, and then there’s 100-mph fast. Paul Skenes pitched like a man readying himself for a Hall of Fame documentary.
Victor Wembanyama
Reality shouldn’t move like this. Victor Wembanyama does things physics hasn’t signed off on — step-backs that defy proportion, blocks that look like camera tricks.
Jimmy Pitaro
Running ESPN in 2025 is like conducting a symphony in a hurricane. Yet Jimmy Pitaro’s made it sound seamless.
Nasser Al-khelaifi
Control isn’t always loud. From Doha to Paris, Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s empire hums with quiet authority.
Ted Sarandos
Netflix is the empire built by algorithms, and Ted Sarandos is its architect.
Andrew Ross Sorkin
Andrew Ross Sorkin has turned the language of Wall Street into a Scorsese film. Greed as character study, power as rhythm.
Saquon Barkley
Running backs weren’t supposed to matter anymore. Saquon Barkley made them impossible to ignore.
Rich Paul
Sports

Rich Paul

Rich Paul doesn’t just represent players; he builds platforms.
Dana Walden
The quietest person in the room often runs the room. Dana Walden doesn’t need to raise her voice — her slate speaks for her.
Mark Shapiro
The playbook for modern moguls could’ve been written by Mark Shapiro.
Adam Mosseri
Scroll long enough, and you’re living inside his design. Adam Mosseri isn’t just shaping social media; he’s choreographing modern communication.
Coco Gauff
Sports

Coco Gauff

At just 21 years old, Coco Gauff has blazed a trail as one of the most exciting new athletes on and off the court.
Will Welch
GQ stopped defining cool and started reflecting it. Under Will Welch, the magazine became a living archive of modern masculinity — vulnerable, global, unpredictable.
Shams Charania
Shams Charania is the guy you look to verify the story when you see it breaking on social media.
Major Food Group
Hospitality

Major Food Group

You don’t eat at Carbone — you attend it. Major Food Group turned dinner into performance art, where lighting, linen, and linguine operate on the same frequency.

Boardroom Staff