Wayne Kabak

Wayne S. Kabak is CEO and owner of WSK Management, LLC, a literary and talent management firm. As a manager of television and radio personalities, authors, broadcast journalists and other notable public figures, his clients include Lou Dobbs; CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo; celebrated newswoman Jane Pauley; acclaimed biographer Kitty Kelley; composer, musician and educator Wynton Marsalis; CNBC host Larry Kudlow; Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer; NPR’s Scott Simon; Senator Ted Stevens; noted investor and world traveler, Jim Rogers; and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. After she left office, he signed former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and negotiated a landmark publishing deal for her. Other notable deals negotiated by him include major deals for NBC’s Chris Hansen and advertising entrepreneur Donny Deutsch.

Before leaving to start his own business, he was a senior executive at the William Morris Agency from 1997-2009, where he served as Co-Chief Operating Officer, NY. He joined William Morris following 17 years as a senior executive and agent at International Creative Management, Inc., where he was also General Counsel. After graduating from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1975 and the Columbia University School of Law in 1977 (where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar), he spent three years working as an associate in the entertainment department at the New York based law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. Mr. Kabak is also a 1972 graduate of Tufts University, where he majored in English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude.

He is a member of the Board of Directors of Film Forum, New York City’s well-regarded non-profit showcase for independent, foreign and repertory cinema. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Communications and Media Studies Program at Tufts University. From 1994-2008, he served as a member of the Board of Trustees (including seven years as president) of New York Theatre Workshop, the non-profit theatre which developed and presented the original production of RENT (the Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning musical).

His professional journalism experience has included contributions to numerous periodicals (including the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s FILM COMMENT, ROLLING STONE, THE VILLAGE VOICE and THE BOSTON PHOENIX).