Failed
Waverley Capital Acquisition Corp. 1
- Registration2021-03-29 Filed S1
- IPO2021-08-21 IPO, search begins
- Definitive AgreementNo merger agreement yet
- Failed2023-09-18 Merger Failed
- Raised
- $200M
- CIK
- 1849580
- SPAC Ticker
- WAVCU
- Focus
- Media, Technology, Entertainment
SPAC Team
Leadership
Edgar Bronfman Jr.—Chairman of the Board of Directors . Mr. Bronfman serves as our Chairman. Mr. Bronfman is the Co-Founder, Chairman and General Partner of Waverley. He is also Senior Advisor and Special Limited Partner of Luminari Capital (the predecessor fund to Waverley) and Managing Partner at Accretive, LLC. Prior to Waverley, Mr. Bronfman was the Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group, one of the world’s largest music companies. During his tenure, WMG was named one of Fortune Magazine’s “Most Admired Companies” in 2007, the first ever music company to receive the honor and, in 2009, was recognized as one of the “World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies” by Fast Company magazine. As a creator, Mr. Bronfman has produced films starring Peter Sellers and Jack Nicholson, and has written songs for artists such as Celine Dion, Barbra Streisand, Dionne Warwick, Smokey Robinson, Donna Summer and Ashford & Simpson, among many others. Mr. Bronfman served on the board of InterActiveCorp (NASDAQ: IAC) for over 20 years. He currently serves as Executive Chairman of the Board of fuboTV (NYSE: FUBO), a live TV streaming platform for sports, news, and entertainment, as well as Executive Chairman of Global Thermostat LLC, a pioneering company designed to develop and commercialize a technology for the direct capture of carbon dioxide, Chairman of the Board of Endeavor Global, a non-profit organization pioneering a new approach to international development and as a Director of Falcon Capital Acquisition Corp. (NASDAQ: FCAC), a special purpose acquisition company that recently announced a proposed business combination with Sharecare, Inc. In addition, he serves on the board of the New York University Elaine A. and Kenneth G. Langone Medical Center and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Daniel Leff—Chief Executive Officer and Director . Mr. Leff serves as our CEO. Dr. Leff is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Waverley. He is also Founder and Managing Partner of Luminari Capital (the predecessor fund to Waverley). Prior to co-founding Waverley and founding Luminari Capital L.P., Dr. Leff was a Partner with Globespan Capital Partners in the firm’s Palo Alto office. Earlier in his career, Dr. Leff worked for Sevin Rosen Funds and Redpoint Ventures. He also previously held engineering, marketing and strategic investment positions with Intel Corporation, and served as Director of Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) from 2011-2018. Dr. Leff has been an investor in a multitude of media and technology companies including 1Mainstream (sold to Cisco Systems), Art19, Elemental Technologies (sold to Amazon), Endel, fuboTV (NYSE:FUBO), Matterport (NASDAQ:GHVI), MikMak, MOVL (sold to Samsung), PlutoTV (sold to Viacom), Roku, The Athletic, Wink, Wondery (sold to Amazon) and others. He currently serves as a director of fuboTV (NYSE: FUBO), a live TV streaming platform for sports, news, and entertainment, where he sits on the audit committee. Dr. Leff earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry from The University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Leff also earned an MBA from The UCLA Anderson Graduate School of Management, where he was an Anderson Venture Fellow and where he currently serves on the Board of Visitors.
Alan Henricks—Chief Financial Officer . Mr. Henricks serves as our Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Henricks is a 45-year veteran of Silicon Valley, working for media, entertainment and technology firms. He has served as the Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU) board’s audit committee chair for the past 9 years, and he has also served on the board of Model N (NYSE:MODN) for 6 years. Prior to this, he served on the boards of Ellie Mae (NYSE:ELLI), A10 Networks (NYSE:ATEN) and Applied Predictive Technologies (sold to MasterCard). Alan served as CFO during IPOs at Documentum (NASDAQ: DCTM) and Borland (NASDAQ:BORL), and was CFO at Ring (sold to Amazon), Pure Digital Technologies (sold to Cisco), Traiana (sold to ICAP), Interwoven (NASDAQ: IWOV) and Maxim Integrated Products (NASDAQ: MXIM). He served as Finance VP of Atari, a division of Warner Communications, for 6 years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.
David Gandler—Director. Mr. Gandler has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Gandler is the co-founder of fuboTV (NYSE: FUBO), the live TV streaming platform that is transforming how people watch sports, news and entertainment, and has served as its CEO since January 2015. Prior to joining fuboTV, Mr. Gandler served from 2013 to 2014, as Vice President, Ad Sales at DramaFever, a video streaming service acquired in 2016 by Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Prior to 2013, Mr. Gandler held positions at Scripps Networks Interactive, Inc., Time Warner Cable and Telemundo, a division of NBCUniversial Media, LLC. Mr. Gandler received a B.A. degree in economics from Boston University. Mr. Gandler brings our board his considerable experience in the digital media industry as well as the operational insight and expertise he has accumulated as Chief Executive Officer of fuboTV.
Jeff Bewkes—Director . Mr. Bewkes has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Bewkes served as the Chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc. from 2008 to 2018. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors in January 2009, having served on the Board since January 2007. Mr. Bewkes previously served as Time Warner’s President and COO from January 2006 to December 2007 and as Chairman of the Entertainment and Networks group from July 2002 to December 2005. Before joining the corporate management of Time Warner, Mr. Bewkes served as Chairman and CEO of HBO from May 1995 to July 2002, and as President and COO of HBO from September 1991 to May 1995. Mr. Bewkes serves on the Boards of Yale University and the Partnership for New York City and serves on the advisory board for The Creative Coalition. He is also a member of The Business Council. Mr. Bewkes has a BA from Yale University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Chris Silbermann—Director . Mr. Silbermann has agreed to serve as a member of our board of directors. Mr. Silbermann is Chief Executive Officer, Managing Director & Partner at ICM Partners. He is also an Angel Investor in a multitude of media, entertainment, and technology startups. Previously, he was President of International Creative Management, Inc. Mr. Silbermann served as Co-Head of Worldwide Television and Co-President at International Creative Management, Inc. since August 2006. He serves as President-elect of the Hollywood Radio and Television Society (HRTS) and serves on its board as Treasurer. He served as Managing Partner of The Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann Agency where he was closely involved in overseeing the day-to-day management and its 27 agents. Mr. Silbermann joined BWCS in 1991. While there, he oversaw a prestigious list of clients and packaged such comedy and drama series as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “According to Jim” and “Criminal Minds.” He also represented the television production arms of several noted feature film producers. He serves on the board of the California chapter of The Nature Conservancy. He serves on the Board of Trustees at The University of California, Berkeley. He began his career in the mailroom at Triad Artists Agency. Mr. Silbermann holds B.A. in English Literature from The University of California, Berkeley.