Kanpai Pandas have brought on First Round Management (FRM) on the team as advisors to bridge the gap between the Pandas and some of the largest names in sports — allowing us to expand our brand to millions of sports viewers worldwide. First Round Management was founded in 2008 and has a proven track record of over 15 years of athlete representation, contract negotiations, and securing endorsements and sponsorships for their client. Our list of advisors now includes:
Malki Kawa — CEO of First Round Management
Abraham Kawa — VP of First Round Management
Primo Kawa — COO of First Round Management
Steve Espinosa — Former senior Tech Advisor and Deputy Chief Digital Officer at The White House
Steve Cohen — Partner and Agent’ in the Motion Picture Talent Department and Head of the Atlanta office at UTA (United Talent Agency) , one of the largest talent agencies in Hollywood
Travis Rego — Director of Customer Development at MGM Resorts International.
MALKI KAWA — ADVISOR
Malki Kawa is the Founder and CEO of First Round Management, and is responsible for managing and directing the careers of over 200 professional athletes in football, baseball, mixed martial arts, wrestling, racing, and eSports. He launched his sports business career in 2005 as a licensed NFL agent.
Known for his extensive roster of A-list clients, including NFL linebacker Darius Leonard, tight end David Njoku, and UFC champion Jon Jones, Malki is respected in the sports industry for negotiating contracts among the most valuable multi-year, multinational eight-figure in the game, including the unprecedented and historic fighter trade deal between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the ONE Championship mixed martial arts promotions. Before pursuing sports management, Kawa worked in the finance and real estate sector in a business alongside his brother, Abe Malki.
ABRAHAM KAWA — ADVISOR
Abe Kawa is Vice President of First Round Management. He is responsible for managing and directing the careers of the agency’s mixed martial arts and professional wrestling clients, and overseeing day-to-day operations, staff, budgets, and business development.
Kawa’s adept navigation of athlete career paths across and throughout the vast and varied network of mixed martial arts and professional wrestling promotions. Over the years, he has helped FRM earn the highest rank in all combat sports among top agencies worldwide.
He has successfully grown domestic fighters and has imported aspiring talents from overseas to fight and win in the Dana White Contender Series, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Professional Fighters Association (PFL), and Bellator, to name a few.
MALKI “PRIMO” KAWA — ADVISOR
Malki “Primo” Kawa is the Chief Operations Officer at First Round Management and is responsible for overseeing finances, influencers, athlete marketing/ onboarding, athletics, brand extension monetization, and vertical integration of FRM’s brand and business extensions.
Malki “Primo” Kawa was hired in 2021 as Director of Operations and was promoted to COO a year later, following the successful launch of BRKRZ, one of the agency’s media outlets with sports memorabilia at its focus.
Before FRM, he worked as Operations Manager for Victoria’s Secret franchise, where he oversaw day-to-day logistics, marketing, inventory supply chain, workforce management, and product control, ultimately handling a volume of over 600,000 units per store for all retail locations across Southern Florida.
Kanpai! 🍻
