Michael Blake

President, Next Level Sports and Entertainment

Founder & CEO, Atlas Strategy Group, Inc.

Michael Alexander Blake is a proud native of The Bronx, New York and is the youngest son of Jamaican immigrants. He is the President of Next Level Sports and Entertainment – the only Black owned national TV Sports network in our country’s history. Viewed in 21 million U.S. households and more than 100 million global households and with programming ranging from HBCU-Know to the What’sNXT studio show, Blake is leading a team that is disrupting the Sports, Media and Technology industries. He is also the Founder & CEO of Atlas Strategy Group, Inc. which focuses on Economic Empowerment through increasing Access to Capital, Contracting and Opportunities to Minority, Women and Small Businesses along with creating metrics-based programs for Social Justice and Civic Engagement for Communities of Color.

Michael served as a three-term Assemblymember in the New York State Assembly representing the 79th District in The Bronx, New York from 2014 to 2020. Blake had his signature piece of legislation signed into law for Small, Minority and Women owned Business Enterprises with less than 300 employees who contract with New York state get paid in 15 days instead of 30 and was the led Co-Sponsor on the five-year extension and expansion of the statewide M.W.B.E. program.

Michael served as a Vice Chair at Large of the Democratic National Committee from 2017 to 2021, being the first Black man elected to DNC leadership since Ron Brown, helping lead efforts to mobilize millennials, communities of color, local elected candidates and training. He also served in the Obama-Biden administration as the White House Associate Director of Public Engagement and Deputy Associate Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs coordinating outreach to the African American, Minority and Women Business Enterprises and state and county elected official communities. Michael’s public and political service began in 2006 as one of the first ten participants in the “Yes We Can” training program led by Senator Barack Obama, leading to a 20-month, eight state campaign tenure throughout the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign, and he later served as the national deputy director of Operation Vote for the Obama-Biden 2012 re-election.