Michelle McGoldrick, The Madison Square Garden Company

MSG Photo Services

Michelle McGoldrick leads one of the biggest sponsorship teams in sports at the Madison Square Garden Company.

She is vital to the company’s growth and showed her aptitude by heading last year’s signature partnership deal that made PepsiCo the exclusive non-alcoholic beverage and snack partner at MSG. But to find out where it all started, one must go back to McGoldrick’s days working for the Arena Football League in the mid-2000s.

McGoldrick moved to New York in 2005, one year after graduating from Boston College. She spent almost four years at the AFL before leaving her role as manager of marketing and fan development at the end of 2008 to become an administrative assistant at MSG — a tough decision, but ultimately the right one.

“Sometimes in your career it’s OK to go backwards a step to then leap forward two steps,” McGoldrick said. She was promoted in under a year and stayed until March 2011, laying the groundwork for MSG to recruit her back in 2015 after she’d spent four years wtih Raptor Group and A.S. Roma. 

The key to her success? Putting a priority on understanding all perspectives. “My relationships have a healthy balance of respect and empathy,” she said. “So often connections with people can turn a ‘no’ into a ‘yes.’”

McGoldrick is intrigued by international rights possibilities and new sponsor categories. — David Rumsey