Brendan Donohue is a seasoned sports business industry leader with nearly three decades of experience in team and league operations known for innovating business processes, elevating talent and launching new ventures.

Currently, Donohue is the Managing Partner for Elevate Talent and Special Advisor to the CEO at Elevate, a sports and entertainment agency.   Brendan overseas the sports executive search vertical in North America and in his advisory role, he provides leadership and advisory across the entire Elevate portfolio, which includes Ticket Sales, Sponsorship, Brand, Creative, Events, and Insights work for organizations across the sports and entertainment landscape.   

In 2017, Donohue was tapped by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and Take Two Interactive CEO, Strauss Zelnick, to commence the NBA 2K League, the first-ever esports league operated by a traditional sports league.  As President of the NBA 2K League, Donohue oversaw the esports league that expanded from 17 original NBA owned franchises to 25 teams, including the sale of three franchises in China, Australia, and Mexico, in addition to guiding significant growth in viewership and number of broadcast partners from around the world, going from 650K viewers of the NBA 2K League Finals in the inaugural season on Twitch alone to a historic 2M viewers in recent years with games seen across platforms, including ESPN2, NBA TV, Twitch, YouTube, TSN and Sportsnet in Canada, and Loco in India.

Previously, Donohue served as Senior Vice President of the NBA's industry-renowned Team Marketing & Business Operations (TMBO) department, where he led the strategic planning and management for all teams across the NBA, WNBA and NBA G League, helping them innovate in sales, marking, digital and analytical areas of their business. He was instrumental in several of TMBO's accomplishments, including assisting with ownership transitions in Sacramento, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Memphis. He also led team business discussions at WNBA and NBA G League Board of Governors meetings and presented at frequent workshops, including assisting NBA team presidents on best practices in marketing, ticket sales and sponsorship sales.

Before joining the NBA league office in 2009, Donohue spent five years as Vice President of Ticket Sales and Service with the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Thrashers and Philips Arena. During his career in Atlanta, Donohue led five consecutive seasons of revenue growth, including ranking first in the NBA in ticket revenue growth during the 2008-09 season. He also previously held positions with the then-New Orleans Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, Detroit Pistons and Palace Sports and Entertainment.  

Donohue’s has great passion for swimming.   In 2025, he completed the Ultraswim 33.3 in Greece, where he swam 33.3km over a four-day race.  

Donohue earned a bachelor's degree from Boston College. He was born in Plainview, NY and now resides in Fairfield, Conn., with his wife Patty, daughter Mandy and son Carter, a highly decorated Special Olympics Swimmer.