Whisper Advisors

Founded in 2018, Whisper specializes in helping founders secure exits to strategic buyers.  Whisper has also advised public companies and private equity firms on strategy, divestitures and buy-side assignments.

Key to Whisper's successful track record is its partners' extensive and diverse experience as executives with backgrounds in M&A, operations, governance and business affairs.  They are deeply connected in their industries.

The Whisper team can execute transactions large and small, develop winning strategies, provide practical operating and organizational know-how, and offer connectivity at the highest levels to execute and achieve successful outcomes. 

Securities are offered through Finalis Securities LLC Member FINRA/SIPC.

CRAIG JACOBSON - Partner

Craig Jacobson is a premier corporate, media and entertainment lawyer and experienced business strategist. He is one of the three founders of Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush & Kaller, LLP, a firm whose practice encompasses media, motion pictures, television, streaming music and emerging digital endeavors.

Craig has advised the CEOs and founders of some of the largest media and technology companies globally. He currently serves on the boards of the Expedia Corporation and Charter Communications. He previously served as a board member for Ticketmaster, Eventful, and Aver Media. Craig is also a founder, along with Imagine Entertainment, Discovery Communication and ITV, of New Form Digital, a pioneer in short form digital programming.

Craig received his B.A. from Brown University and his J.D. from George Washington University. With his wife, Lynn, the Jacobsons have endowed a scholarship at Brown and are supporters of the Los Angeles chapters of KIPP and Teach for America.  They live in Santa Monica, CA and are avid collectors of contemporary art.

JASON L RAPP - Partner

Jason L. Rapp is an experienced corporate M&A executive and an accomplished operator of and investor in digital media companies. Before co-founding Whisper, Jason was the Managing Director and Partner at Science Inc., the Santa Monica, California investment firm that helped to build Dollar Shave Club (sold to Unilever) FameBit (sold to Google) and many other companies.

As an operator, Jason has run traditional media operations and disruptive new start-ups. As an investor and strategy executive, has executed complex media partnerships and over a billion dollars in M&A transactions.

Jason was a senior executive in Barry Diller's IAC corporation (Nasdaq:IACI), having run the M&A group and then as CEO of Gifts.com, the leading gift recommendation engine.  Before joining IAC, Jason was an executive at The New York Times company (NYSE:NYT).

Jason received an MBA degree from Columbia University and an AB degree from Duke University. A Pittsburgh native (and New Yorker at heart), he lives in Santa Monica and serves on the LA committee of Human Rights Watch.  

Jason is a Registered Representative of Finalis Securities, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC.

ED WILSON - Partner

Ed Wilson is an entrepreneurial media executive who moves seamlessly between traditional and emerging media and gracefully from the executive boardroom to the free-thinking space of content and talent development.

In March 2020, Wilson was named Executive Chairman of two Apollo Investment Corp. portfolio companies:  CoxReps, the country’s leading national television representative company, and Gamut, a digital advertising organization. He is a sought-after advisor in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector, serving on the Board of ATAC, a publicly-traded SPAC focused on the TMT space, and as a partner at Whisper Advisors, the boutique advisory and banking firm.

Across his various roles, Wilson draws on deep relationships developed over a nearly two decade span when he served as President of FOX Television Network, NBC Enterprises and CBS Enterprises, as well as President of Tribune Broadcasting and Chief Revenue Officer of Tribune Corp.

Wilson is also Executive Chairman of NPACT, the leading trade organization for non-fiction production companies, and the founder of Dreamcatcher Media.

In the educational and philanthropic realm, Wilson served as a Member of the Board of Trustees of Southern Methodist University for 12 years and continues to serve on the Executive Board of the Cox School of Business there. He is also on the Advisory Board at the Walton Business School at the University of Arkansas.

A native of Rison, Arkansas and University of Arkansas alumnus (BS/BA Finance), Wilson resides in Los Angeles.

BEN STAHL - Executive in Residence

Ben Stahl is a seasoned software engineer turned general management executive, with deep expertise in media, marketplaces, and financial technology.

Before joining Whisper, Ben was the GM of International and Emerging Businesses at Care.com. His earlier career includes leading engineering at Vimeo, where he built the fastest video upload pipeline on the internet. He went on to lead both product and engineering at Soundcloud, where he brought two new products to market that doubled their creator business. As an executive, Ben has a proven track record of incubating new revenue streams in established businesses, with many multi-million-dollar success stories.

Ben holds a BA in Economics from Connecticut College. Raised in western Massachusetts and now resides in Hudson, NY.

KYLE SOLOMON - Special Advisor

Kyle Solomon is an accomplished leader with a successful 30-year career history in the financial industry. Kyle has extensive experience in investment banking, public and private markets, and scaling businesses.  

Before Whisper, Kyle was a Managing Director at TD Cowen. Kyle led their Derivatives and Merger Arbitrage division for 10 years, until transitioning to become a Senior Relationship Investment Banker.

Kyle received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Kyle is based in New York City. Kyle is a Registered Representative of Finalis Securities, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC

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