D'Backs President & CEO DERRICK HALL is the "primary reason" the franchise was "chosen the best sports organization to work for in the world by the United Nations and why the team has on several occasions been listed among the best employers in Arizona and beyond," according to a profile by Steve Henson of YAHOO SPORTS. Hall, who is "back to working 12-hour days" barely two months after undergoing surgery for prostate cancer, "exudes energy and vigor." The D'Backs last month held their Most Valuable Partner awards, and Henson noted the show was a "culmination of [Hall's] vision to make business and pleasure indistinguishable." Hall said that 15 sports organizations "contacted him ahead of the event, wanting to replicate it." Teams by nature are "highly competitive and reluctant to reveal anything that might give an opponent an edge, yet several league and team executives said Hall has a knack for breaking down those barriers." A's President MIKE CROWLEY said, "From a personality standpoint, people gravitate to Derrick." Hall keeps a box of D'Backs caps "in his car and if he sees somebody wearing an old purple and turquoise cap, he hands the person a new one." Hall’s "one-fan-at-a-time approach includes those struggling financially." He established a season-ticket "scholarship program that since 2008 has resulted in 57 families being given tickets worth more than $365,000." Henson wrote Hall "might whistle while he works, but there's no mistaking the competitive hiss in this Diamondback." Hall "wrestled control of the team from" former co-Owner JEFF MOORAD, who is currently trying to purchase the Padres. MLB Commissioner BUD SELIG said, "What I like about Derrick is that he is intimately involved in the Diamondbacks organization every day, not just four days a week, not just three weeks a month." Hall's approach "fosters the culture the United Nations recognized in giving the inaugural Positive Peace Award for a sports team" to the D'Backs. It is why MLB "has Hall on its short list of candidates to replace Selig when he retires." And it is why "several of the groups seeking to purchase the Dodgers have contacted Hall to become the CEO should their bid win" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/31).
