Tony Ressler led the group that acquired the Atlanta Hawks in June 2015, and he now serves as Principal Owner and Governor. He also serves as a Senior Advisor to the Hawks Foundation, and in October 2020, he was named as one of eight inaugural members of the NBA Foundation.

Ressler is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Ares Management Corporation, a publicly traded, leading global alternative investment manager offering investment solutions across the credit, private equity, real estate and infrastructure asset classes. Ares has more than 2,600 employees with offices in Atlanta in addition to its headquarters in Los Angeles and other offices across the North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

In Atlanta, the Hawks Foundation, along with the Ressler Gertz Family Foundation, continues to make a meaningful impact on the community. Among the programs that Ressler and the Hawks are directly involved in are efforts to enhance K-12 education, Black economic empowerment, and the Hawks' longstanding program of building bridges through basketball. The Ressler Gertz Family Foundation committed to a multi-year, multi-million-dollar grant to the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurship—the largest center in the U.S. providing business plan development, mentoring, access to markets and capital and networking opportunities to Black entrepreneurs. Ressler is also on the Global Board of Advisors of Atlanta-based non-profit Operation HOPE, one of the nation's largest organizations dedicated to financial literacy and empowerment.

In the not-for-profit sector, Ressler serves as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and one of the founders and former member of the Board of the Painted Turtle Camp (affiliated with Paul Newman's Hole in the Wall Association), which provides camping opportunities for children affected by chronic and life-threatening illnesses and their families.

In the public education sector, Ressler is a Founder and Former Chairman of the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, one of the largest and most successful nonprofit public charter school networks in the nation, operating 26 high-performing, tuition-free middle and high schools in Los Angeles communities that are systemically underserved. Alliance has a proven record of success for its nearly 13,000 scholars and 20,000 alumni.

Ressler received his B.S.F.S. from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and received his MBA from Columbia University's Graduate School of Business.

Tony and his wife, actress Jami Gertz, have three sons—Oliver, Nicholas, and Theo.