As golf fans focus on the lush greens of Oakmont Country Club this week, one RIA is eyeing a different kind of green. Jackson Square Capital is sponsoring rising golf talent Riley Lewis at the U.S. Open to align its brand with the wealthy audience tuned into the major tournament.
Lewis, a 23-year-old native of Prescott, Ariz., qualified for the US Open after competing on the PGA Tour Americas and Korn Ferry Tour. As he teed off Thursday at Oakmont in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, Lewis’s right sleeve of his polo shirt featured the Jackson Square Capital logo. The San Francisco-based RIA has grown from $250 million to over $550 million AUM since its launch in 2019, founder and former JPMorgan adviser Andrew Graham told InvestmentNews.
“With finance and golf, there's a lot of similarity and crossover with the two. And [golf] is something that we enjoy in the office as well,” added Michael Cordano, investment advisor at Jackson Square Capital. “In the future I think some partnerships with Riley playing with clients and prospects, doing clinics, is just all upside for both parties.”
Both Cordano and Lewis attended Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, where Lewis was named West Coast Conference (WCC) Player of the Year and honorable mention All-American. Lewis’s ties to Arizona and Los Angeles positioned him to become Jackson Square Capital’s first sponsored athlete, as both areas mark a significant portion of the firm’s client base.
Community impact is another synergy between Jackson Square Capital and Lewis, who in 2017 received the Presidential Volunteer Service Bronze Award for coaching the Special Olympic Golf team from 2013 to 2019. Jackson Square Capital has participated in charity golf outings in California through The Olympic Club Foundation and Oakhurst Country Club to benefit organized athletics for local children and the American Cancer Society.
“Really, the benefit of having any type of professional athlete as an ambassador is trying to grow the client base, but also highlighting the service component and what [Lewis’s] done in the past, there's also a charitable aspect of this too,” said Cordano. “We have the ability to bring him into some of those charity events and be a part of our foursome, which would be pretty awesome to have a tour professional as part of a fun charity event.”
In addition to Lewis's monetary agreement with Jackson Square Capital, the LMU business graduate gains access to Jackson Square’s ultra-high-net-worth, corporate executives and family offices clients. “His growth from a career standpoint outside of golf, I think is also kind of one of those undisclosed benefits,” Cordano said.
Lewis said in a statement that he was “honored” to have Jackson Square Capital’s support as he “continues to realize my dream of playing on the PGA Tour full-time.” In another initiative connecting athletes and finance, Morgan Stanley partnered with NIL (name, image, and likeness) management platform TheLinkU earlier this year to give student athletes access to financial advisors and education.
“Jackson Square Capital’s deal with Riley Lewis is a strong example of how NIL is being used strategically beyond traditional sports-affiliated brands. It also reflects how industries like wealth management are embracing partnerships to build trust and connect with next-gen clients,” said TheLinkU founder and president Austin Elrod. “Athletes, brands, and universities are entering partnerships with more strategy, structure, and a clearer sense of value.”
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