The NHL has hired Sean Eggert as its new SEVP & CMO and Julie Yufe as EVP & Managing Director of International amid a major reorganization of its business staff. The restructuring, which was communicated to league staff Wednesday and clubs Friday afternoon, reduces the number of direct reports to NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly from 14 to eight, consolidating revenue-generating functions under President of NHL Business Keith Wachtel and operational functions under COO Steve McArdle. <\/p>\n
Direct reports to Bettman and Daly under the new structure include: <\/p>\n
Colin Campbell \u2013 SEVP, Dir of Hockey Operations Kim Davis \u2013 SEVP\/Social Impact, Growth Initiatives & Legislative Affairs Joseph DeSousa \u2013 CFO Steve Mayer \u2013 President of Content & Events Steve McArdle \u2013 COO Keith Wachtel \u2013 President of NHL Business Jon Weinstein \u2013 SEVP, Chief Communications Officer David Zimmerman \u2013 Chief Legal Officer <\/p>\n
Direct reports to Wachtel include: <\/p>\n
Sean Eggert \u2013 SEVP, CMO (new hire) Heidi Browning \u2013 SEVP, Chief Digital Officer Brian Jennings – SEVP, Chief Partnerships & Club Strategy Officer Kyle McMann \u2013 SVP, Global Business Development Julie Yufe \u2013 EVP, Managing Director, International (new hire) <\/p>\n
Direct reports to McArdle include: <\/p>\n
Peter DelGiacco \u2013 SEVP, CTO Debbie Jordan \u2013 EVP, Administration & Human Resources Jared Maples \u2013 SEVP, Chief Security Officer David Proper \u2013 SEVP, Chief Media Officer <\/p>\n
Direct report to both Wachtel and McArdle: <\/p>\n
David Lehanski \u2013 EVP, Innovation and Growth Strategy <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our responsibility to capitalize on the momentum we have created and to build upon it to secure and strengthen our future,\u201d Bettman wrote in a memo to staff. \u201cWe cannot be complacent in this rapidly evolving sports, media and technology environment. Accordingly, Bill and I are announcing changes to the League office\u2019s organizational structure which are designed to make us more efficient and effective in order to maximize the opportunities in front of us on behalf of the Clubs, the business and the game.\u201d <\/p>\n
The restructuring does not impact hockey operations in any way and does not come with any departures or layoffs. The NHL\u2019s current league-level staff head count is roughly 750. <\/p>\n
As part of the reorganization, the NHL will also explore the creation of a new business led by President of Content & Events Steve Mayer that would provide content and event production services to third parties, such as other sports entities or entertainment properties. Mayer has elevated the production value of the NHL\u2019s tentpole events, like the Winter Classic and Stadium Series, since joining the organization in 2016. Providing that expertise to other companies would create a new revenue line for the NHL. <\/p>\n
Eggert, a 2018 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree<\/a>, is being brought on with the intention of centralizing all marketing and brand-related functions. He has spent the past seven years at Under Armour<\/a>, where he served as SVP\/Global Sports Marketing. He previously worked at Red Bull for more than a decade, including six years as Head of Sports Marketing, and at Gatorade. Despite focusing on the brand side in all of those roles, he has experience overseeing owned properties and events at Red Bull. He also brings strong experience in youth marketing through his launch of Under Armour\u2019s UA Next program. <\/p>\n Heidi Browning, who previously held the CMO title at the NHL, is transitioning to the role of Chief Digital Officer. The former Pandora marketer will oversee the league\u2019s owned-and-operated websites and mobile apps, as well as digital media planning and pricing, linear and digital research, fan engagement and digitally focused technology partnerships, collectibles and games. <\/p>\n Yufe joins the NHL following lengthy stints in global marketing roles at Diageo and Anheuser-Busch. She takes over responsibility for international growth strategy from David Proper as the league seeks to grow business in hockey hotbeds like Sweden, Finland and Czechia and expand its spheres of influence into growth markets such as Switzerland, Germany and, eventually, the U.K. The league opened its first European office in Zurich in 2024. <\/p>\n MEDIA DEVELOPMENTS: Proper will now focus on media rights, distribution and scheduling as Chief Media Officer. In addition to negotiating deals and managing relationships with the league\u2019s national and international broadcast partners, his purview includes charting a path forward in a rapidly changing local broadcast ecosystem. <\/p>\n In the memo, Bettman said Mayer will \u201cbe adding to his portfolio oversight of a new initiative intended to support our Clubs (where needed) with League-operated local game production.\u201d He also wrote that Proper will \u201coversee our efforts to build out a centralized entity to service the Clubs most impacted by the recent regional sports network dislocations.\u201d <\/p>\n Taken together, those remarks suggest the league is preparing to take on a larger role in supporting local game telecasts for clubs following the shuttering of Main Street Sports<\/a>, similar to the role MLB has played in facilitating local broadcasts for some of its teams<\/a>. <\/p>\n Brian Jennings, who has been with the league since 1990, will now oversee the NHL\u2019s newly formed Club Services and Strategy group. That unit brings club business affairs, business development, venue business and ticketing and analytics under one umbrella. The group is not expected to be as hands-on in its work with clubs as the NBA\u2019s TMBO organization but rather to provide high-level guidance to teams. <\/p>\n All this change comes with Bettman, the longest-tenured commissioner in North American sports, set to turn 74 next week. The commissioner has not publicly communicated any timeline for his retirement, but the scope of the restructuring is likely to invite speculation in league circles about what, if anything, it signals for the long-term succession picture<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NHL has hired Sean Eggert as its new SEVP & CMO and Julie Yufe as EVP &…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[6755,385,99],"class_list":["post-673019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}