Paraag Marathe
Age: 38
Team: San Francisco 49ers
Title: President
Where born: Sunnyvale, Calif.
Education: University of California, Berkeley (B.S.); Stanford University (MBA)
Family: Wife, Jennifer
Favorite way to unwind: Going for a run outdoors in the neighborhood with my dog Rita.
Cause supported: Andrea’s Voice, an organization looking to educate and help those with eating disorders.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve ever done: Is still to come in my life.
If I could change jobs with anyone for a day, it would be: Starting pitcher for an MLB team. I think it would be challenging and exciting to have the entire team’s success or failure dependent on you — every fifth day, of course!
2015 will be a good year if: The 49ers are the first team to play in the Super Bowl in their home stadium.
My fellow Forty Under 40 class members would be surprised to know that I: Worked at and managed my parents’ Round Table Pizza restaurant from age 12 through 18.
TERREL LLOYD / SAN FRANCISCO 49ERSFL teams often struggle with a cultural divide between their football operations and their business side. Some clubs try to have only one entrance into team headquarters to counter any sense of division. Full front-office retreats are not unheard of, along with other bonding exercises.
The San Francisco 49ers don’t really have this kind of divide. Their team president, Paraag Marathe, also negotiates player contracts — so the man responsible for selling out the building also cuts the contracts for the on-field talent.
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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.
“It’s pretty unique to do both contracts and business development,” Marathe said. “My job is kind of unique, because I started on the football side.”
Late Hall of Fame coach Bill Walsh hired Marathe from Bain & Co. in 2001 to work on the team’s football side, analyzing salary cap matters. He became the team’s chief contract negotiator in 2004, and then he gradually got pulled into the business side as well.
Last year provided perhaps the highest-profile example of his dual roles to date. Not only did 2014 bring the opening of Levi’s Stadium, a venue for which Marathe helped oversee negotiations and construction, but he also worked to sign quarterback Colin Kaepernick to a new six-year deal.
— Daniel Kaplan
