Director of Athletics, Arizona State University, 49: “In four years, Smith beefed up the coaching squad by hiring nationally regarded coaches in football, soccer, wrestling, women’s golf, and volleyball while overseeing a $30 million capital campaign and directing ASU’s 22-sport programs. Under Smith’s guidance, the graduation rate for student athletes increased to a record high, and more Sun Devils made it on the university’s honor roll. Smith, a Notre Dame grad, came to Arizona after stints with Division I schools Iowa State and Eastern Michigan University. He also serves on the Fiesta Bowl Board and the NCAA’s Management Council. Highlight Reel: Smith was named the 2003 West Region Athletics Director of the Year by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.”
Keith Tribble, Chief Executive Officer, Orange Bowl Committee, 49: “He’s the marketing whiz behind the wildly popular FedEx Orange Bowl, negotiating everything from sponsorship sales to broadcasting rights. As CEO of the OBC, Tribble handles day-to-day operations, budgets, business affairs, and nearly 40 other events annually. Since stepping into the CEO post in 2000, he has increased gross annual sales from $500,000 to $5 million. Highlight Reel: Prior to his contract with the Bowl Championship Series, Tribble negotiated more than $175 million in television and sponsor-rights fees. Season ticket holders also grew from 10,000 to 25,000 over the past three years for roughly $5 million in additional ticket revenues.”
Corporate Executives
Donna Bryan, “Vice President, Business Affairs “, NBC Sports, 37: “When you’re watching sports on the peacock channel, you’re watching Bryan’s work. Since joining NBC in 2000, the 37-year-old Bryan helped negotiate broadcasting rights for deals involving NASCAR, the PGA Tour, Wimbledon, Visa Triple Crown, the French Open, and Arena Football. She is also involved in virtually all sports programming, talent negotiations, and negotiations for NBC Sports’ equity investments in sports-related ventures. She currently works on the network’s Action Sports Tour, a series of extreme sports events scheduled to launch in 2005. It’ll be a tour that we have equity in, so it’s more than having the right to telecast the event, Bryan explains. We’ll be running the actual tour. In addition, she oversees licensing of NBC Sports’ footage archives. Bryan is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and Harvard Law School. Prior to joining NBC, she worked in corporate law at Cahill Gordon & Reindel. I spent five and a half years at a big firm in New York, and the law firm did a lot of work for NBC. There was another person who was an alum of Cahill Gordon and when he was looking for a deputy, he alerted the partners at Cahill Gordon that he was looking for someone, and that’s how I wound up working for him. In her role with NBC Olympics, Bryan worked on sublicensing and vendor and business development agreements. She also worked with the USOC on finalizing the NBC/Olympic Trials rights agreement and with PAX on the NBC/PAX sublicense agreement, which allowed PAX to telecast the Olympic Trials in