Post by Ryan McKenna for July 15, 2013
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On Monday, it was a very hot day in Manhattan as we finished up our respective internship duties around 5 p.m. and made our ways back to the dorms for a very exciting night of guest speakers. We got spoiled and had the opportunity to hear two amazing speakers back-to-back.
The first speaker we heard from was Dana Weinbach who is the Vice President of Corporate Development for the New Jersey Devils and the Prudential Center. Dana is one of the best young sports professionals in the business as she has worked in many different aspects in her career. Dana started off her talk by telling us about her journey and how she got to where she is today. After growing up in South Florida, Dana attended Duke University where she majored in Public Policy. For a long time, she assumed that she would follow in her father’s footsteps and attend law school to become a lawyer. Yet, Dana knew that she wanted to work in sports and pursued that to the fullest.
After working two great internships with HBO and Madison Square Garden, Dana weighed her options and accepted a position to work for HBO as an editor and publicist in the media relations department. She worked there for several years until 2006. A unique opportunity presented itself when the Prudential Center and New Jersey Devils organization were looking for leaders to help them promote and run the operation as it was getting ready to be built in Newark, New Jersey. Dana saw this as a great chance and took a leap of faith with this career move to the Devils.
In Dana’s current role, she is responsible for bringing in new sponsorship and premium seating revenue, overseeing client relationships, and creating unique partner marketing events for both the Devils and the Prudential Center. Dana also serves as a special liaison to the ownership group to help in strategy and execution of business development projects. Dana wrapped up her speech by presenting all of the MSBA students with a brief packet of notes on “How Do Successful People Get That Way”, which was distributed by renowned New Jersey Devils General Manager Lou Lamariello to all of his employees. Overall, hearing Dana speak was a great educational experience for all MSBA students and staff to learn more about what it takes to make it in this great industry.
Our second speaker of the night was also a very special one. We had the opportunity to hear Tammy Ross, who is the Vice President of Strategic Initiatives and Integrated Marketing for HBO Sports. Tammy is one of the few professionals in the industry who has spent a large majority of her working career with the same organization. After attending undergraduate school, Tammy moved onto law school. During that time she had the opportunity to work an internship with HBO. After receiving her law degree, Tammy had the opportunity to start working full time with HBO, where she worked as in house counsel in the areas of advertising, marketing, and trademark licensing.
Following several for several years and a brief stint with Tommy Hilfiger companies and World Cup USA 1994, she made a return to HBO to work as a legal advisor to HBO Pay Per View. In Tammy’s current role, she is responsible for identifying and implementing strategic initiatives for Production and Programming for the development and execution of integrated marketing support for all sports programming. She is also responsible for the acquisition and distribution of sports and entertainment programming through the pay-per-view platform. HBO is one of the leaders in bringing sports and sporting events to television viewers. Tammy gave us an inside and behind-the-scenes look on how popular programs like Hard Knocks, Boxing 24/7 and Road to the Winter Classic come about. It was a very special night for MSBA to have the opportunity to hear two amazing female sports business professionals who have been incredibly successful throughout their respective careers.
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