Berg Opens Resolution

Former ICM Chief Jeff Berg has reportedly opened his new agency today, and word is it’s going to be big – as in, the first new major agency since Paradigm.

The headquarters of Berg’s full-service Resolution agency is up and running at 1801 Century Park East in Los Angeles, according to Deadline Hollywood, and has a $200 million war chest to lure top agents to the company or swallow other agencies whole. Paradise Artists’ Steve Schenck, who gave notice to his former company last week, will run the music division from New York, with former ICM agent Terry Rhodes on board.  Resolution is said to also be opening a Nashville office.

Three “lucrative concert  tours” are said to already have been booked for this summer.

About 35 agents are in play – 25 in NYC, 10 in Nashville. The phones and internet are in place at the L.A. location, and the conference room is finished, but the bathrooms are still a work in progress, according to Deadline.

“Over the next six months, Hollywood and New York and Nashville will witness a series of announcements about agents being hired from the top tenpercentaries and midlevel executives being culled from the Industry,” Nikki Finke wrote, describing Resolution as Berg’s “film/TV/talent/literary/music/publishing/digital” agency.

Former music agent Jeff Franklin has reportedly been named COO and William Morris Agency Finance Director Laura Li is CFO.

Funding comes from Jahm Najafi, a former Salomon Bros. banker who owns Direct Group. Direct Group, in turn, owns properties like Columbia House and BMG.

A head honcho at CAA was allegedly almost recruited for the firm before he stayed firm, and “big names from CAA, UTA, ICM are in play or have been” and “there are many big deals afoot.”

Berg left ICM – now ICM Partners – after an internal struggle but apparently left without signing a noncompete, telling recruits “I was given a visa to go do my thing.”

He also apparently went on a “listening tour” and issued a Jerry Maguire-like “memo.”

“I spent a lot of time listening to execs, agents, producers, clients. And the overwhelming sense I got was there’s a real opportunity to do something new in the agency business. As the major firms have grown larger, they also have become more distant. The way to counter that is less overhead, greater focus, more efficiency. I’m not looking to create ICM 2.0.”

A big-name “people person” is also said to be coming on board to counteract the chilly personal skills of “Iceberg.”