The founder of Authentic Brands Group, the management company behind dozens of retail and media names including Reebok, Champion and Brooks Brothers, said he plans to take the company public within the next 12 months by announcing a former Hotels in Wynn CEO will be its next general manager.
In an exclusive interview with CNBC’s Sara Eisen, Jamie Salter said that Authentic Chairman Matt Maddox, who joined the company as president in January 2025 after a 20-year career at Wynn, will take over as CEO so Salter can become executive chairman.
Asked if this means the company is heading toward an IPO, Salter said he expects the company to go public “within the next 12 months.”
“There is no doubt that Matt is a great Wall Street CEO,” Salter said. “We came close to going public twice, we filed twice and each time we were taken out by other private equity firms at much higher prices. I think this time the company has gotten so big that I think this time we’ll probably end up going public within the next 12 months.”
Salter said the transition was necessary because he was trying to build Authentic into a $100 billion company over the next five years, and said he needed to devote “100 percent of his time” to the mergers and acquisitions that have long been the lifeblood of his business.
In his new role, Salter will remain “deeply committed to the business” but will focus on long-term strategy, Authentic said in a press release. Maddox will lead day-to-day operations with a mandate to scale the business, drive organic growth and create value for the company’s “shareholders and partners.”
In a statement, Maddox added that “the opportunity ahead is significant, and we are just getting started.”
(L-R) Jamie Salter and Matt Maddox attend the Michael Rubin REFORM Alliance Casino Party on September 13, 2025 in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Arthur Holmes | Getty Images
Authentic generates approximately $38 billion in system-wide retail sales and has become a major force in the retail industry, known for buying the intellectual property behind popular brands that are struggling or failing and licensing that intellectual property for lucrative royalties.
It has more than 50 brands in its portfolio, including Sports Illustrated, Guess and Juicy Couture, and has partnered with major figures like Shaquille O’Neal, David Beckham and Kevin Hart.
Authentic has focused almost entirely on apparel retailers for years, but these days Salter said it’s leaning more toward entertainment acquisitions, which are currently the “driving force” of the company.
“Today entertainment makes up about 20% of our business, 80% of which is beauty and lifestyle, but I believe over time entertainment will become much more important, from 20% to 50%,” Salter said. “The reason I want to focus so much on the entertainment industry is because it’s obvious that content is what drives commerce.”
Authentic has signaled that it has been ready for a public offering for years, most recently in April at the Reuters Momentum AI event where Salter said the company would attempt another IPO “soon.”
He added that once the company is ready to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he plans to move into a management role other than CEO.
That moment appears to have arrived with Maddox’s appointment as CEO and Salter’s transition to executive chairman.
Salter, who spent decades in the consumer and retail industry, is an accomplished investor and dealmaker, but he is less experienced than Maddox when it comes to the skills needed to run a public company. During his tenure at Wynn, a nearly $10 billion market cap company listed on Nasdaq, Maddox spent nearly 15 years in senior management as CFO, president and CEO, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Often, when companies are about to go public, they choose managers who have extensive experience running public companies, especially when those companies are founder-led.