Kim Pegula in the spring of '18 took over the team president role for the Sabres and BillsGETTY IMAGES
Pegula Sports & Entertainment President & CEO KIM PEGULA is utilizing a "unite-as-one approach" with the Bills and Sabres, and the reviews she has received so far have been good as both teams are "off to fast starts" in '19, according to Tom O'Shei of the BUFFALO NEWS. Pegula made the decision in the spring of '18 to "take on the team president" role for both teams. That happened after the Pegulas parted ways with former PSE President RUSS BRANDON, who "left the organization amid allegations of personal misconduct." Brandon is the "most prominent and highly placed of at least six executives with whom the Pegulas have parted ways over the last year-and-a-half." For the most part, their positions have "gone unfilled." Pegula said, "I call it not just being owners, but taking ownership of our organizations. How do we want to build them going forward? I think I’ve grown in accepting that as the role I’m meant to play." Pegula "indicated she is open to filling the vacated" offices at PSE HQ, but "not urgently." Pegula: “Eventually that process will happen, but not this year.” O'Shei noted she has "made efforts to unite the business units into an organization that shares a singular culture." Those efforts "include straightforward strategies such as monthly breakfasts, small-group lunches with executives and employees." While it is "difficult at best to quantify the culture of a company, the Pegulas’ highest-profile employees offer clues that suggest the effort may be working" (BUFFALO NEWS, 10/13).
