Executive Transactions

ESPN.com's Pat Yasinskas reported Falcons President RICH MCKAY will serve as Chair of the league's competition committee. McKay has served on the committee since '94 and has been a co-Chair since '98. He has served as co-Chair with former Titans coach JEFF FISHER since '01, but with Fisher no longer coaching, McKay is "now a one-man show at the top of this committee" (ESPN.com, 3/1).

HOOKED 'EM: ESPN has named two veteran employees -- VP/Programming & Acquisitions DAVE BROWN and Senior Coordinating Producer STEPHANIE DRULEY -- to head up the new Univ. of Texas TV network. Brown becomes the net's VP/Programming and Druley its VP/Production, with both relocating to Austin. Brown's oversight will include creation of new shows and concepts as well as scheduling, acquisitions and the net's business plan. Druley will oversee the overall production, including studio and remote productions, the look of on-air content and hiring of all network talent (ESPN).

EXECS: Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia has promoted MICHELLE MURRAY to VP/News Programming, KIM STEWART to Dir of Marketing, SHAWN OLEKSIAK to Senior Exec Producer of Live Events, BRAD NAU to Senior Exec Producer of Special Projects, DAVE FINOCCHIARO to Senior Dir of Engineering, CRISTIN DUNN to Senior Marketing Coordinator and LISA IAMURRI to Senior Accounting Administrator (CSN)....MLB has named JOHN THORN Official Baseball Historian. Thorn, who is the author and editor of several baseball books, succeeds late Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times writer JEROME HOLTZMAN, who served as Official Baseball Historian from '99-'08 (MLB)....The A's have promoted Assistant General Counsel NEIL KRAETSCH to General Counsel. Kraetsch will be responsible for all legal and human resources matters (A's)....The American Drag Racing League has hired former A-B Sports Marketing Manager KAREN HOLSCHLAG as Dir of Sponsorship Development (ADRL)....NCAA Exec Assistant PAT SCHAEFER retired Friday after 25 years with the organization (NCAA.org, 2/24)....Maroon PR has hired KRISTEN SEABOLT as Associate Account Exec (THE DAILY).

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