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 CNBC anchor Maria Bartiromo; former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates; Dr. Condoleezza Rice; Lou Dobbs; celebrated newswoman Jane Pauley; acclaimed biographer Kitty Kelley; composer, musician and educator Wynton Marsalis; CNBC host Larry Kudlow; Fox News Channel’s Bill Hemmer; Fox Business Channel’s Charlie Gasparino; NPR’s Scott Simon; and noted investor and world traveler Jim Rogers.
He has also negotiated significant deals for NBC’s Chris Hansen, advertising entrepreneur Donny Deutsch and former Senator Byron Dorgan.
Before starting his own business in 2009, he was Co-Chief Operating Officer, NY, of the William Morris Agency. He joined William Morris in 1997 following 17 years as a senior executive, General Counsel and agent at International Creative Management, Inc. After graduating from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Columbia University School of Law (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 graduate of Tufts University, where he majored in English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude.
His current Board memberships include Film Forum (New York City’s well-regarded non-profit showcase for independent, foreign and repertory cinema) and Elevator Repair Service (the non-profit theatre ensemble that created the worldwide success “Gatz”). 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).