About the Founder
Mason P. Ashe is a veteran sports and entertainment attorney, talent manager, and educator.
For thirty years, Ashe has structured and negotiated deals related to athlete and entertainer engagement, executive compensation, digital content licensing, and many other agreements associated with the scouting, marketing, management, employment, and commercialization of talent in the sports and entertainment industries globally.
Before re-launching ASEC in March 2013, Ashe was most recently a Partner in one of the nation's largest labor and employment law firms, where he provided advice and counsel on employment law and regulatory compliance issues, and helped clients prevent employment litigation through management and staff training on judicial and legislative developments, and industry trends like use of social media in the workplace.
Ashe offers his clients a reservoir of practical experience acquired from a variety of business and legal platforms over the past twenty-five years. He was Of Counsel at a full-service boutique law firm in Baltimore, MD (2009-2011); founder and President of ASEC (2004-2009); co-founder, COO, and General Counsel of Strickland & Ashe Management Consulting LLC (1997-2004); and a Vice President in the Team Sports Division at International Management Group (“IMG”) (1993-1997) – the world's largest sports agency, where he learned global sports management from industry pioneer and arguably the most successful sports agent in history -- the late Mark McCormack. At IMG, he also absorbed invaluable lessons about integrity, preparation, talent evaluation, fiscal responsibility, networking, and fearless negotiating while working with super agents Peter Johnson, Tom Condon and Bill Strickland -- the best in the business.
Ashe's early years in the talent business after law school were most significantly influenced by the encouragement of his extraordinary wife; incredible mentors such as North Carolina trial attorneys Michael Grace and Jeffrey Howard; and believe it or not, haircare industry titan and self-made multi-millionaire Joe Dudley, who persuaded Mr. Ashe to read and adopt the tenets of "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill.
Throughout the years, he has counseled a wide variety of companies (both publicly traded and privately held), non-profit organizations, and extraordinary individuals. This diverse group has included elite athletes (in the NBA, NFL, WNBA, rugby, track & field, ice skating, tennis, golf, and international basketball leagues), award-winning entertainers (such as actors, authors, bands, vocalists, comedians, and magicians), media personalities (such as news and sports anchors), television networks, sports franchises, charitable organizations, colleges, coaches, event promoters, wealth managers, sports and talent agencies, celebrity chefs, restaurant owners, producers of TV and web-based reality shows, as well as a few pioneers of social networking and New Media platforms changing the way digital content is created, published, distributed, and consumed.
Ashe earned a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from Hamilton College, a Juris Doctorate from the State University of New York at Buffalo Law School, and is a member of the North Carolina Bar. Between college and law school, he received extensive brand management, marketing, and sales management training at The Procter & Gamble Distributing Company, New York Paper Products Division.
Ashe is an adjunct professor of sports law at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Georgetown University Summer Programs in Sports Business Management, and Howard University School of Law. He has previously taught sports law at Florida A&M University College of Law (Spring 2015), Howard University School of Law (Spring 2012 and 2013), Georgetown Law Center (Summer 2013), and at the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida (2004-2009). He is also a frequent guest speaker and panelist at symposiums on sports law hosted by bar associations, colleges, and law schools.
Whenever possible, Ashe enjoys spending time with his family, cooking, listening to live jazz, sampling local cuisines, playing golf with friends, and supporting his alma mater, law school, and organizations that enable youth to participate in sports and the performing arts.