sports innovation lab
Angela Ruggiero could spend the rest of her days tending bar at the beach and still earn an obituary with far more famous names and titles than most. But when it comes to sports business, the 38-year-old is just getting started.
She’s an Olympic champion hockey defensewoman. She was an International Olympic Committee executive board member, the IOC athlete’s commission chair and chief strategy officer of Los Angeles 2028. She counts IOC President Thomas Bach and LA 2028 Chairman Casey Wasserman among her mentors.
Her time at the IOC ended on Feb. 25, and now she’s focused on her latest title: CEO of Sports Innovation Lab, a data analytics and consulting firm that claims the capacity to help solve the most vexing questions in modern business.
Ruggiero; Josh Walker, a former Forrester Research vice president; and retired NFL player Isaiah Kacyvenski founded the lab in early 2016. Their core product is a database of detailed information about technology companies servicing sports and fitness industries.
Ruggiero and her team believe that data, smartly synthesized, can unlock the sports industry’s future. “Technology is the single greatest force in sports today, and so many people say they’re struggling to understand technology, full stop,” Ruggiero said. “But they’re also struggling to understand how it’s impacting their athletes, their business model, their planning.”
Clients and partners of the Sports Innovation Lab include Intel, Gatorade, Octagon, the NBA and the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Ruggiero expects to use her experience in global sports to build Sports Innovation Lab and help her clients.
“I’ve been so lucky to have that global perspective over the last eight years,” she says. “Sports structures are very different across the globe. It just helps you question everything. I come back to the U.S. and say, ‘Well, that’s one way of doing it.’”
— Ben Fischer
Age: 38
Where born: Panorama City, Calif.
Education: Harvard College, B.A.; University of Minnesota, M.Ed., sports management; Harvard Business School, MBA
Family: Wife, Sarah; child, Payson (1)
What gets you fired up? Complacency
What do you wish you could tell yourself 10 years ago? Nothing … every day you learn and those learnings contribute to who you are today.
Profession other than your own you’d most like to attempt: Commissioner or politician.
Something your friends would consider “so you”: Frequent flier.
Causes supported: International Olympic Committee or Women’s Sports Foundation.
Person in the industry you’d most like to meet: Mark Cuban.
Ideal day off: Sleeping, eating clean, and working out … my old lifestyle as an athlete to recharge the batteries.
Most thrilling/adventurous thing I’ve done: Zero gravity flight.
