Janet Duch
Age: 40 (turned 40 earlier this month)
Company: Madison Square Garden
Title: Senior vice president, marketing, N.Y. Rangers
Where born: Brooklyn, N.Y.
Education: University of North Carolina (B.A., journalism and mass communication)
Favorite way to unwind: Kickboxing, Pilates and wine (probably in that order).
Cause supported: Garden of Dreams Foundation.
Person in the industry I’d most like to meet: Sheryl Sandberg and Oprah Winfrey.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: Director of the CIA.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I've ever done: Riding down Haleakala volcano.
My fellow Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that: I speak fluent Slovak.
REBECCA TAYLOR / MSG PHOTOS
iehard New York Rangers fans like to say they are “true blue” or that they “bleed blue.”
Janet Duch, senior vice president of New York Rangers marketing at Madison Square Garden Co., feels much the same way.
“It definitely becomes a way of life, and our entire staff all feel like we start to bleed blue as well,” Duch said. “There’s nothing more important than the fan connection that we have, and I can say I feel as equally as passionate about that brand.”
{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.
Duch has grown up with the team like many of those fans. Originally from Brooklyn, she graduated from the University of North Carolina and started with MSG right after college as a member of the Rangers’ public relations game-night staff. She moved from there into a marketing assistant role with the WNBA Liberty and quickly continued to move up within MSG, rising to her current position in 2011.
“I’ve been here for 17 years and been extremely fortunate to work with iconic brands, an amazing venue, and amazing teams and people,” she said. “Early on, I had amazing mentors here at the Garden that helped me realize how much the Rangers mean to the city and our fan base, not just to those diehard true-blue fans, but also families and the next generation of fans out there.”
It’s that fan passion that has fueled the marketing programs that Duch has spearheaded. During the Rangers’ 2014 postseason, the team enhanced its Welcome to RangersTown campaign, highlighted by an indoor entertainment festival called the Hockey House that drew more than 40,000 fans over nearly eight weeks and a viewing party in Bryant Park for a Stanley Cup Final game that attracted more than 14,000 fans.
“To see nearly 15,000 Rangers fans together in the middle of Manhattan, it was awesome,” she said. “For someone who grew up with a huge passion for sports and was a student athlete, I can definitely say this is my dream job.”
— Ian Thomas
