Hornets name new chief business revenue officer with extensive sports background
In deciphering where to turn for the franchise’s next chief business revenue officer and targeting one individual in particular, the decision became clearer with each phone call.
Whenever Shelly Cayette-Weston, the Charlotte Hornets’ president of business operations, dilated up someone to get their thoughts on Michael Behan, gauging how he’d fit with the organization, the answers were relatively identical.
“Asking throughout the league and throughout the industry,” Cayette-Weston said Tuesday, “the first thing when we brought up his name was, ‘Absolutely, that’s a slam dunk because of who he is with his leadership.’”
So the Hornets went hard after Behan and brought him on board, officially naming him as the team’s new CBRO. He’ll oversee a variety of areas with Hornets Sports & Entertainment, including ticket operations, ticket sales and services, along with business partnerships and business intelligence.
Behan comes from Legends, an organization he played a role in launching that assisted in premium live events. The company helps universities and athletic departments around the country improve the fan experience while also growing additional revenues.
As the president of Legends College, Behan was in charge of more than 300 full-time employees and had partnerships with 25-plus universities and athletic programs — including Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Florida State and Georgia Tech — and will use that knowledge to increase revenue with the Hornets.
“I had the opportunity in my former role of overseeing the college business to have oversight over a lot of different Power 4 schools,” Behan said. “And so that gave me a unique perspective as I analyzed this opportunity because I was able to kind of compare and contrast that to other organizations, other marquee Power 4 football, basketball programs that were maybe a similar spot, that were on the doorstep of great success that just needed a little bit more, just needed maybe one additional step.
“Along the way, I was able to see kind of as those organizations made that commitment, as they invested in people, invested in their facilities, they were able to celebrate the success of all that. And so it made it a lot easier as we started to think about the opportunity here in Charlotte.”
Coming to a business team led by someone he was slightly already familiar with in Cayette-Weston thanks to their Cleveland ties — Behan his NBA career with the Cavaliers in 2005 and worked there until 2010 — didn’t hurt, either. Factor in what he’s noticed from Hornets co-owners Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin since they took majority leadership in 2023, and Behan was sold on making the move with his family from New Jersey to the Carolinas.
“From an organizational standpoint, obviously being in the sports business space I followed the ownership transition, I follow investments in facilities extremely closely,” Behan said. “So, I didn’t necessarily know the inner workings, but I could see from afar that it was an ownership group that was investing in and maybe re-imagining what they or what the franchise is going to be.
“And so as Shelley reached out and when we had some initial conversations, I was starting from a pretty good spot. And I had a pretty good perspective there. And it allowed the conversations to progress pretty easily and seamlessly throughout.”
Behan’s leadership, ability to develop people along with an innovative approach were just some of the qualities that attracted him to the Hornets. Plus, his profile mirrors what the Hornets want to achieve moving forward.
Along with hiring Behan, the Hornets beefed up their business operations by promoting Alexandria Anneheim to vice president of premium sales and service, and added Leslie Finch as VP of partnerships and Alena Jasinski as VP of ticket sales and services. It’s the latest part of the vision of Schnall and Plotkin.
“Rick has been very clear as he looks to create this premier NBA team that he was going to do it through people and culture — that’s what’s going to drive it,” Cayette-Weston said. “The revenue is going to grow on the back end of it. But it we have the right people, the right culture, it’s going to drive those right behaviors and performance that’s going to get us there.
“So, I think he embodies that and he also embodies our values.”
