Sunday, February 25, 2018

Russell Wilson Traded to New York Yankees


A former executive with Crown Growth Partners, Geoff Block serves as the manager of RLB Squared, LLC, where he oversees the company's extensive portfolio of hedge funds and real estate. Beyond his professional pursuits, Geoff Block is an avid fan of the Major League Baseball (MLB) New York Yankees.

In February, the Yankees traded for Texas Rangers’ Russell Wilson, one of the most high-profile players in all of professional sports. Wilson was drafted in the fourth round of the 2010 MLB Amateur Draft and played briefly for the Colorado Rockies minor league system before his rights were acquired by the Rangers, but he is best known for his abilities on the football field.

Wilson has been the starting quarterback of the NFL Seattle Seahawks since 2012 and owns a career win-loss-tie record of 65-30-1 to go along with 161 touchdowns and 22,176 passing yards. He's a four-time Pro Bowl player and won a Super Bowl in 2013. Although he confirmed he has no plans to give up football, Wilson will attend Yankees spring training and share a dugout with Yankees stars Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

Lionel Richie - American Hitmaker


After success on Wall Street with Crown Growth Partners, Geoff Block turned his attention to managing his family’s holdings through his RLB Squared company. Geoff Block has numerous outside interests, including the music of singer-songwriter Lionel Richie.

Born in 1949 in historic Tuskegee, Alabama, Richie helped found the Commodores, one of the top rhythm and blues acts of the 1970s. Playing the saxophone and singing, he also wrote such hits as “Easy” and “Three Times a Lady.”

Richie went solo in 1980. His song “Endless Love” became a hit duet with Diana Ross, and his 1982 self-titled album climbed the Billboard charts and earned him a Grammy for best male pop vocalist. His next album, Can’t Slow Down (1984), introduced his popular song “All Night Long” and won Richie a best-album Grammy.

Richie added to his fame by co-authoring (with Michael Jackson) the humanitarian hit “We Are the World.” His success continued with 1986’s album Dancing on the Ceiling, a four-million copy bestseller.

Setbacks such as his father’s death and a messy divorce interrupted Richie’s career until the release of Louder Than Words in 1996. Two other works followed, Renaissance (2000) and Coming Home (2006). He returned to top album status with Tuskegee (2012), a country CD in which he collaborated with Jennifer Nettles and Willie Nelson. The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts honored Richie for his lifetime achievement in December, 2017.