Menu
People and Pop Culture

People: Executive transactions

Basketball
The Phoenix Suns named Bubba Burrage general manager of the NBA D-League Bakersfield Jam. Burrage was head pro personnel scout for the Suns.

Colleges
The University of Missouri–Kansas City named Ursula Gurney senior woman administrator and senior associate athletic director for internal operations. Gurney was senior associate athletic director for academics and strategic initiatives.

Arizona State University named Greg McElroy associate vice president and chief business development officer for Sun Devil Athletics. McElroy was senior vice president for sales and marketing for the Dallas Cowboys.

BURCHETTE
Bradley University named Brett Burchette associate athletic director for external affairs, effective June 9. Burchette was an assistant professor in sports management at Drexel University.

Caldwell College named Kristina Danella associate athletic director and women’s basketball coach. Danella was women’s basketball coach at Urbana (Ohio) University.

Stony Brook University named Shawn Heilbron athletic director. Heilbron was senior associate athletic director for development at Oregon State University.

The University of South Florida promoted Barry Clements to deputy athletic director, Jocelyn Fisher to senior associate athletic director for administration and senior woman administrator, Yulander Wells senior associate athletic director for finance and chief financial officer, and Elliott Charles associate athletic director for compliance.

Youngstown State University named Jim Tressel president, starting July 1. Tressel was executive vice president for student success at the University of Akron and was formerly football coach at Youngstown State and Ohio State University.

Facilities

SHAYEGAN
Metropolitan Hospitality, the hospitality company for Citi Field, named Amir Shayegan event director. Shayegan was deputy director of the Street Activity Permit Office in the Office of Citywide Event Coordination and Management in New York City.

Webster Bank Arena named Sally Presutto vice president of events. Presutto was director of touring for TNA Entertainment.

Football
The Green Bay Packers promoted Craig Benzel to vice president of sales and business development, and named Gabrielle Valdez Dow vice president of marketing and fan engagement. Dow was vice president of marketing for the Baltimore Ravens.

Minnesota Vikings director of college scouting Scott Studwell stepped down.

The Miami Dolphins named Eric Stokes assistant general manager. Stokes was director of college scouting for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers named Jon Robinson director of player personnel and Andy Speyer national scout. Robinson was director of college scouting for the New England Patriots, and Speyer was a college scout for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Hockey
The ECHL’s Reading Royals named Drew Bell president. Bell was general counsel, chief operating officer and chief marketing officer of SafetyCare Technologies.

Law
Shook, Hardy & Bacon hired Corby Jones and Bill Odle as of counsel and members of the firm’s new intercollegiate and amateur sports practice.

Marketing
Coyne Public Relations promoted Chris Brienza to senior vice president and head of the company’s New York office.

Learfield Sports named Chuck Spicer general manager for Falcon Sports Properties, the multimedia rights holder for Bowling Green State University Athletics. Spicer was vice president of sales, marketing and communications for Iowa Speedway.

PRITSKER
MAGID
Scout Sports and Entertainment promoted Ian Parker to account coordinator. The company also hired Alex Magid as account executive and Dan Pritsker as account coordinator. Magid was senior account coordinator for LeadDog Marketing Group, and Pritsker was account manager for event operations with Precision Sports & Entertainment.

Media
Sports Illustrated named Emma Span senior editor. Span was senior editor for Sports On Earth.

NBCUniversal named Luis Silberwasser president of Telemundo Network, effective in August. Silberwasser was executive vice president and chief content officer for Discovery Networks International.

The Online Publishers Association named Jason Kint chief executive officer, replacing Pam Horan, who leaves the position this week. Kint was senior vice president and general manager of CBS Interactive’s sports division.

Motorsports
Jackson Motorsports Group promoted Joe Ignacio to program director, Alex Perez to program manager, David Trimble to sales manager and Jennifer Ignacio to operations manager.

Multiteam Companies
Ilitch Holdings named Doug Kuiper vice president of corporate communications. Kuiper was chief marketing officer of Covisint.

Olympics
USA Basketball named Greg Urbano digital director. Urbano was product manager for Fox Sports Digital Media.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation named Riccardo Fraccari its first president. Fraccari was president of the International Baseball Federation.

Soccer
The U.S. Soccer Foundation promoted Krista Washington to associate manager of marketing and communications and Patricia Arty to associate manager of development and hired Emma Nelson as development assistant.

Sports Commissions and Tourism Boards

WHITE
The Springfield (Mo.) Sports Commission named Whitney White assistant director.

Adidas named Zion Armstrong brand director in North America, effective Aug. 1.

Other
BeRecruited Chief Executive Officer Vishwas Prabhakara left the company.

WWE named Annie Kruger senior manager of network public relations. Kruger was director of sports communications, sports and event programming at Showtime.

Awards and Boards
The Associated Press named to its board of directors Bill Hoffman, president of Cox Media Group; Isaac Lee, president of Univision Communications; and Rob King, senior vice president of “SportsCenter” and news for ESPN.

SMITH
The Outback Bowl named Kevin Smith chairman of its board of directors. Smith is director of sports of the St. Petersburg Clearwater Sports Commission.

U.S. Masters Swimming presented Hill Carrow its 2014 Ransom Arthur Award, which recognizes outstanding volunteer services that benefit the development of Masters swimming. Carrow is chief executive officer of the Triangle Sports Commission.

The Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America named Frank DeSocio executive director, effective July 1. DeSocio is president of Strike Ten Entertainment.

IntelliCell Bio Sciences named Merril Hoge to its board of advisers. Hoge is a NFL analyst for ESPN.

Bauer Performance Sports’ board of directors appointed Karyn Barsa independent director.

The Holmes Group awarded Tony Signore with the Sabre Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement. Signore is chief executive officer and managing partner of Taylor.

Hulman and Co. named Mitch Daniels to its board of directors. Daniels is president of Purdue University.

The New York State Broadcasters Association named Mike Francesa to its Hall of Fame. Francesa is a host for CBS Radio’s WFAN-AM/FM in New York.

The PGA of America appointed Rob Rush to serve on the PGA properties advisory committee. Rush is chief executive officer of LRA Worldwide.


People news
To have your personnel announcements included in the People section, please send information and photos to Brandon McClung at 120 W. Morehead St., Suite 310, Charlotte, NC 28202, or email them to careers@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Electronic photos must be a jpg or tiff file for Macintosh, 2.25 inches wide at 300 dpi. Color only, please. News items may also be sent via fax to (704) 973-1401. If you have questions, call (704) 973-1425.


SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/26/People-and-Pop-Culture/Careers.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2014/05/26/People-and-Pop-Culture/Careers.aspx

CLOSE