USOC Names Former NFL Marketing Exec Lisa Baird Its New CMO

Baird Will Most Likely Not Move To USOC's HQs In Colo.

The USOC yesterday named former NFL marketer LISA BAIRD to its vacant chief marketing position. Baird will take over as CMO at the organization January 20. She comes to the USOC after holding senior-level marketing positions at the NFL, IBM, GM and Procter & Gamble. At the NFL, she worked as Senior VP/Consumer Products & Marketing from ‘05-07 and oversaw some memorable advertising campaigns, including the ‘07 user-generated Super Bowl ad. She left the position to spend more time with her three children. In her new position, Baird will spend a significant amount of her time initially in Colorado Springs learning about the organization and traveling to meet with corporate sponsors and the Chicago 2016 bid committee. Long term, she will be based wherever she can be most effective, a USOC spokesperson said (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal). In Colorado Springs, Brian Gomez writes, "High on Baird's to-do list ... will be assisting the negotiation of contract renewals with AT&T, Bank of America and Kellogg's." The USOC has 16 sponsors signed through '12, "most notably Allstate and Anheuser-Busch." But the USOC "needs an auto maker to replace GM and a home-improvement company" to replace The Home Depot, which announced last week it was not renewing its sponsorship of the organization (Colorado Springs GAZETTE, 1/13).

NEW YORK STATE OF MIND: In Chicago, Philip Hersh wrote, "You can figure that Lisa Baird, the USOC's new [CMO], won't move far from her home in the Connecticut suburbs of New York." Baird "can do her job a lot better from there than from a place where increasingly limited air service makes every trip a headache." Colorado Springs, where the USOC's HQs are located, "isn't the place for someone trying to market the Olympics." As long as the TV networks have their operational bases in N.Y. and "most major corporations have a significant presence if not their" HQs there, N.Y. "looks like the place" for a CMO. The USOC has "enough of a task in trying to replace major sponsors" like GM and The Home Depot, and "asking Baird to do that from Colorado Springs would be silly" (CHICAGOTRIBUNE.com, 1/12).

BIG LOSS: In Boston, John Powers writes the departure of USOC Chief of Sports Performance STEVE ROUSH last week is a "big blow to the USOC." Roush "played a huge role in developing elite athletes by systematically linking financial support to both potential and progress and by funneling cash to the sports most likely to produce medals" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/13).