Dan Shell
Age: 38
Company: Fox Sports / USC Sports Properties
Title: Vice president, general manager
Where born: Los Angeles
Education: University of California, Berkeley (B.A., economics)
Family: Wife, Sabrina; daughter, Ashlyn (5); son, Joshua (3)
Favorite way to unwind: Having a glass of wine with my wife, watching “Pitch Perfect” with my daughter, and playing soccer with my son.
Cause supported: Happy Trails for Kids.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve ever done: Pier-jumping off Venice Pier with my high school buddies in the middle of the night, senior year of high school.
Person in the industry I’d most like to meet: Billy Beane.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: John Calipari; it would be really fun to coach that team in a game. Or Andrew Friedman; I would love to be able to build out the Dodgers’ roster based on numbers and analytics.
2015 will be a good year if: USC goes to the [college football] playoff, I stick to my workout goals, and my 3-year-old gets potty trained.
My fellow Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that I: Am writing a book with my sister Stephanie on our childhood/upbringing called “Raised by Wolves.”
JOHN MCGILLEN
ike most college basketball coaches,
Dan Shell was a junkie for the game. As an assistant coach at Saint Mary’s for his longtime friend Randy Bennett,
Shell turned over every rock in his search for talent, even if it meant traveling as far as Australia. But there was another side of the business that intrigued
Shell. He was drawn to the scheduling, logistics, marketing and business side of college athletics. And with the pace that assistant
{podcast}
SBJ Podcast:
Forty Under 40 editor Mark Mensheha and Executive Editor Abraham Madkour discuss this year's class, some of the more interesting stories in it and how the selection process works.
coaches keep, he didn’t envision himself doing that work forever.
So seven years ago, he took a risk and left the game he loved for a job with IMG College selling sponsorships for the West Coast Conference, which ultimately led to his current gig, general manager of USC’s multimedia rights for Fox Sports.
“I was obviously not a traditional hire,” said Shell, who was originally recommended to IMG College by then-WCC Commissioner Jamie Zaninovich and hired by former IMG executive Lawton Logan.
Shell made a name for himself when he sold the WCC tournament’s title sponsorship to Zappos.com, in what was an unprecedented deal for the conference beginning with the 2010 event. Two years later, Fox won the multimedia rights at USC and hired Shell to manage the property, putting him in charge of sales for one of the nation’s most valuable athletic departments.
While at USC, Shell has created a unique model for his sales team, which doesn’t compete for commissions. When one person makes a sale, everyone is rewarded.
“It’s not about my account or their account,” Shell said. “What’s better motivation than selling for the team?”
— Michael Smith
