DJ Khaled Joins the U.S. SailGP Team’s Board of Directors
All he does is win.
The United States SailGP team has brought on mega-producer DJ Khaled as the newest member of its board of directors. Khaled will represent the organization and help the team make strategic business decisions with the league now in its fifth season, which started in Dubai in November.
“Our goal is to bring SailGP to the mainstream, and the mainstream to SailGP,” U.S. SailGP Team CEO Mike Buckley said in a phone interview. “These are the small chess moves to do that.”
The music mogul and Grammy winner joins a board that also includes Buckley, World Cup champion ski racer Lindsey Vonn, U.S. SailGP Team chairman Ryan McKillen and Avenue Capital Group CEO Marc Lasry. Khaled, one of the most prominent hit-makers in the music industry, will collaborate with the SailGP brain trust to find ways to attract new fans while potentially leveraging his existing relationships with SailGP partners such as T-Mobile and Tommy Hilfiger.
“At the end of the day, it’s about expanding your audience,” Buckley, a two-time world champion sailor, said. “He’s got 40 million people who follow him on Instagram. He’s doing something right. So, if we can learn little lessons about how he’s created such a following, that would be huge for us.”
The Americans are one of 12 national teams in the global championship league that features teams racing at venues around the world.
The news of Khaled’s appointment comes just days after the league announced a partnership with Roc Nation International that will make Khaled the league’s chief hype officer for the U.S. events this upcoming season. Khaled, who is managed by Jay-Z’s Roc Nation, will join his first U.S. SailGP meeting as an official board member later this month.
This is the latest sports-related endeavor for the anthem king. Khaled, who recently served as an ambassador for the Ryder Cup golf competition, also launched last year a one-of-a-kind golf challenge with Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon on NBC. The Cardigan Classic: Fallon vs. Khaled took place in September in Lake Tahoe, Nev. The Miami Heat superfan has also done various partnerships over the years with the likes of Jordan Brand, Gatorade and EA Sports.
The U.S. Sail GP team’s ownership group is led by Lasry’s Avenue Sports Fund (along with Buckley and McKillen), and its limited partner list includes actor Issa Rae, heavyweight boxer Deontay Wilder, wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins and linebacker Kayvon Thibodeaux. Former U.S. soccer star Jozy Altidore, linebacker Dallas Turner and VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk are also on the cap table. The diverse ownership group completed the acquisition of U.S. SailGP team back in 2023.
SailGP, which recently announced an extension on their TV rights agreement with CBS Sports, was founded by Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and world champion yachtsman Sir Russell Coutts in 2018.
(This article has been updated to clarify the season started in November.)
