Grow Learfield

Mark Fields moves from Black Bears to Badgers

Mark Fields, an Account Executive for Black Bear Sports Properties at Maine the last two years, moves to Madison, Wisconsin to hold the same role at Badger Sports Properties.  He is a graduate of Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio, and he earned his master's of sports administration from Ohio University.  Mark's wife, Leslie (a UW-Green Bay alum), is thrilled about heading back to her native Wisconsin.  Her family is still there and she is a loyal Badgers' fan.

Unitan Wins Chairman's Cup

Mike Unitan was awarded the highest prize a Learfield sales exec can win at ceremonies in San Diego this week. I got to applaud his performance along with inductees into the Chairman's Club: Ted Baugh, Doug Bax, Rick Thompson, Danny Spataro and Rob Stockhausen. [flickr set]

Send these men a note of congratulations. They're our best!

--clyde

San Diego AE Academy

121 Learfield Sports Account Execs from across America were together this week for an AE Academy [Photos] in sunny San Diego for three days of learning, sharing and community service.  One of the highlights was an afternoon packaging and sorting food for San Diego's Food Bank [Photos] that provides food for the needy.

I heard so many comments from our crew about how "apart" we all are from hunger needs. Our eyes were opened.  That evening I think Greg said it for all of us:  "We live among the needy, the poor; yet we never know it; Jesus wants otherwise.

--clyde

Tags and Jenna to UNH

Jeff Tagliaferro ("Tags") heads up our New Hampshire property as General Manager. Jeff, a Durham, N.H. native who currently resides in Bedford with his wife, Jennifer, and their three children (Emma Jane, 7; Isabelle, 5; Domminic, 2).

Most recently, Jeff was serving as Assistant General Manager for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, Double A affiliate of the MLB Toronto Blue Jays.  He is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston.

Jenna Kubesch joins Tags at Wildcat Sports Properties as Account Executive. After earning her master's degree at Memphis, Jenna served with our Tiger Sports Properties for one year before making the move to N.H.

Cowboy Up

Jared Newland is a new Senior Account Executive for our Wyoming property. He already has strong ties to UW -- as a graduate, and as serving seven years as the Athletics Development Officer for the Cowboy Joe Club (UW Athletics' primary fund raising arm). Jared comes to us from Denver, where he was the Western Region Director of Sales for Red Foxx Solutions. His other experience includes serving as the athletic media relations assistant at the University of Texas at San Antonio and Utah State University, as well as account executive for The GEM Group, where he promoted the Sears National Champion football and men's basketball trophies.

GM, AE to Montana

Gene Peterson comes to Montana as our General Manager from Clear Channel Radio, where he served as Vice President and Market Manager. Gene is a Montana alum, so he already has Grizzly in his blood. 

Gene and his wife, Rose, have two grown daughters and four grandchildren, ages 3, 4, 5 and 7.

Dan Ingram also joins us at Grizzly Sports Properties as an Account Executive. Most recently, he was the Director of Annual Giving for Idaho State University Athletics, and before that, served nearly four years as the Assistant Director of the Grizzly Scholarship Association for the University of Montana Athletic Department.  Dan and his wife, Nicole, just moved from Helena to Missoula and have son, Stockton (6) and daughter, Malone (4).  Dan earned his bachelor's degree from Washington State and master's degree from Idaho State.

We took Action

It's official. Today we're announcing the acquisition of Action Sports Media, along with ISP Sports, which will immediately provide us rights to arena and stadium signage with seven university partners -- Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Purdue, South Carolina, University of South Florida, Elon and Portland. In addition, we will now represent Rupp Arena, the famed home to University of Kentucky basketball in Lexington.

Immediately welcome these former Action employees to our family: Keith Burdette (Rupp Arena); Tiffany Spartz (Purdue); Gerry Dickey (OSU) and Matt Kolasinski (Portland).  I’ll report more on them later.  All the trade media had this story weeks ago, but we finally closed this afternoon.  Ben Sutton of ISP and Greg Brown were key in this; our new CFO, Paul Schofer was chained to his telephone for the last two months.  Thanks guys.  Appreciate you.

--clyde

Will Patterson Is Now a Saluki

It's fun to watch our company grow. Learfield Sports is now working for Southern Illinois University. Will Patterson starts there February 25th as general manager. The mascot is the "Saluki"--an ancient dog breed.  And, our old friend --formerly at Mizzou-- Mario Moccia is athletic director there. SIU is our first property in Illinois even though we have a Chicago office. 

Will, his wife Crissy, and little 5-month Emery will be relocating from Army. Emery is doing much better after a life-challenging scare a month or so ago. I'm particularly close to Will because for several years he was right outside my office here in Jefferson City handling affiliate relations. 

--clyde

Michelle Smith new GM at WAC Sports Properties

Michelle comes to us from CFW Creative Sports where she was Vice President of Sales for the Plains Region. She was general manager for Falcon Sports Marketing (at the U. S. Air Force Academy) and Assistant Athletic Director of Marketing, Promotions and Sponsorships for Utah State University, where she earned her bachelor's degree.

Michelle and her husband, Matthew, have two children: 5-year-old Daphne and 2-year-old Cole. Matthew is Director of Sales and Service for the Colorado Mammoth, a Major League Lacrosse team. Watch this space for additional staffing announcements from WAC Sports Properties.

--clyde

Brian Moon new anchor/reporter at Wisconsin Radio Network

Brian Moon joins our newsroom in Madison as the newest reporter/anchor for the Wisconsin Radio Network.  Brian is from Macomb, IL where he received his BA in TV/Radio Broadcasting from Western Illinois.  His first job in radio was at WOC in Davenport, IA.  A few years later, he landed in Milwaukee at WISN and worked under Terry James (the news director for the Nebraska Radio Network) who helped recruit Brian for the job. You can read and hear Brian's work at WRN.com starting Monday.

--clyde