Verve, the talent and literary agency, has appointed a new CEO as it expands its representation ambitions.
Bill Weinstein was named to the top job by the Los Angeles-based agency’s 11 partners, the firm said on Jan. 18. “I am incredibly grateful and humbled to be selected for this position by my fellow Partners and peers,” Weinstein stated.
Weinstein, previously a motion picture literary agent with WME, was part of the trio — along with Bryan Besser and Adam Levine — who left the Endeavor-owned agency to form their own firm, which became Verve in 2010.
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As founding partner, Weinstein engaged in negotiations with the Writers Guild when talks over packaging fees and affiliate production were hotly debated in 2019, and the agency broke ranks to sign the writers’ code of conduct before the majors made deals.
The past several years have marked a growth period for Verve, as it branched out into talent representation during the height of the pandemic in June 2020 — when production was slower across the industry — then looked to the East Coast with a New York office location and an eye toward publishing, theater, film and TV clients. In 2021, Verve bought Paul Alan Smith’s startup agency New Deal MFG. Co, which focuses on TV directors.
The agency, which now lists 120-plus employees and 52 agents, has broadened its scope to podcasts — launching an audio division in late 2021 — and non-fiction and is eying further areas for expansion.
In addition to oversight duties from the promotion to run Verve, Weinstein will also keep working with his roster of clients, which includes J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay, Sara Hess, Jac Schaeffer, Michael Arndt Mike Jones, Adele Lim, James Schamus and more.
Founding partner Besser added of Weinstein’s CEO role, “As we continue to evolve, we recognize the need to formalize the managerial organization of our business to bring greater accountability, efficiency, and excellence to our core mission of advocating on behalf of creative talent.”
