Executive Transactions

Univ. of Florida AD JEREMY FOLEY has agreed to an 11-year deal worth up to $1.2M annually with bonuses, “making him the highest paid athletic director in the country and keeping him in Gainesville until retirement age.” His previous deal, signed in ’05, paid about $600,000 annually. The new deal “won’t be finalized for a few weeks,” but it has been approved by the UF compensation committee (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 6/23).

HORSE SENSE: Magna Entertainment Corp. (MEC) CEO MICHAEL NEUMAN is leaving the company to pursue other opportunities.  MEC Chair FRANK STRONACH will assume the role of interim CEO (MEC).  Neuman was “at least the fifth Magna CEO since 2000” (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 6/23)....The NTRA named VICKI BAUMGARDNER CFO.  Baumgardner most recently was CFO at Louisville-based law firm Wyant, Tarrant & Combs, and prior to that was VP/Finance at Churchill Downs Inc.  The NTRA also named OfficeMax National Accounts Manager TERRY MCELFRESH Senior VP/Purchasing, succeeding JOE MORRIS, who is leaving to become Publisher of the Thoroughbred Times (THE DAILY).

EXECS: The Capitals named Orioles Dir of Corporate Sales JOHN GREELEY Senior Dir of Corporate Partnerships (Capitals)....The Vikings named NFL Manager of Events Business Development KIMBERLY FIELDS Dir of Civic & Business Affairs (Vikings)....The Brewers named PricewaterhouseCoopers Senior Manager STEVE O’CONNELL Dir of Reporting & Special Projects, Finance & Administration (Brewers)....Baltimore Sun columnist JOHN EISENBERG is retiring after writing over 2,500 columns for the paper and will now concentrate on writing books (Baltimore SUN, 6/24)....Sonics radio play-by-play announcer DAVID LOCKE had his two-year contract terminated on Friday. No replacement was named (SEATTLE TIMES, 6/23).

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