Marlins promote Caroline O’Connor to group president

MIAMI — Caroline O’Connor did not know what her ceiling was when she entered the sports activities enterprise world, just because there have been so few examples of ladies who traveled her path.

Seems, she had no restrict.

The Miami Marlins promoted O’Connor to president of enterprise operations on Monday, making them the primary U.S. main sports activities franchise to have girls serving concurrently as president and normal supervisor. The Marlins made historical past by hiring Kim Ng as GM in November 2020; two years later, they’ve made one other important transfer.

“Once I discuss to younger ladies, I actually like them to see me in my position as a result of I did not really feel like I had that position mannequin,” O’Connor stated. “And I would like individuals to see themselves once they see me and know that it’s a risk.”

O’Connor is simply the second girl to function president of a Main League Baseball group; Seattle’s Catie Griggs is the opposite. She was dropped at the Marlins by then-CEO Derek Jeter in 2017 as a senior vice chairman and chief of workers, then turned the group’s chief working officer in 2019.

Ng handles the on-field enterprise, O’Connor runs the off-field enterprise.

“We’re lucky to have somebody with Caroline’s enterprise acumen and imaginative and prescient main our day-to-day enterprise operations,” Marlins chairman and principal proprietor Bruce Sherman stated. “Her ardour and drive for achievement is unmatched in our sport and the South Florida market. Her management will proceed to information the Marlins group towards our purpose of sustained success whereas strategizing further new ventures to develop our enterprise and improve our model recognition.”

O’Connor’s path to this spot was, in some methods, unintentional. She was a highschool athlete in New Jersey — taking part in basketball, tennis, soccer and softball — and went to school at Rutgers and New York College, first learning computer systems, then finance.

She labored for some highly effective locations: IBM, UBS Funding Financial institution, Morgan Stanley. She wasn’t enthusiastic about a profession in sports activities.

After which Jeter referred to as.

“A once-in-a-lifetime alternative,” O’Connor stated.

She’s been with the Marlins ever since.

Miami has been making an attempt to show issues round, on the sector and off, for the higher a part of the final 20 years. Jeter was a part of the possession group that took over in 2017; he is gone, however two of his extra important hires — Ng and O’Connor — at the moment are tasked with ending the job.

O’Connor has seen progress. Attendance this previous season was up 12% over 2019, the final time there was a full season of baseball with out pandemic interruptions or main restrictions — although there may be nonetheless an extended option to go earlier than Miami will get the crowds it’s in search of.

O’Connor has overseen development in season-ticket gross sales. With the 2023 World Baseball Traditional coming to Miami for all three rounds in March, together with the championship sport, the Marlins know huge crowds are coming. O’Connor is fixated on how one can get these individuals to come back again as Marlins clients.

“I feel it is a actually particular place,” she stated. “And I’d say if we did not really feel so strongly about this market and the chance that’s right here, that might not make us so excited to come back in every single day. I feel we’ve so many individuals on this market that love leisure, love sports activities, love baseball, love getting collectively and going out. It is simply making an attempt to create an expertise that pulls everybody.”

The rising position of ladies in baseball management is not misplaced on O’Connor. Griggs leads the Mariners; Laura Day is Minnesota’s government vice chairman and chief enterprise officer; Kellie Fischer has an analogous position in Texas, because the Rangers’ EVP and chief monetary officer.

“I have been extremely lucky in that I’ve had lots of assist from lots of totally different individuals, no matter gender, my whole profession,” Griggs stated earlier this yr on a panel at Seattle College. “With that being stated, I have never been in a position to see lots of people who appear like me doing the stuff that I do. … I haven’t got lots of position fashions.”

O’Connor feels the identical manner. She would not thoughts the “trailblazer” description. She simply goes about all the main points of her job — together with sitting down with group teams and civic organizations, even having lunch final month with the Consul Common of Japan at his Miami residence — figuring out that her success now may make it simpler for girls to comply with.

“It is taken an actual group to get behind me,” O’Connor stated. “The group that I work with at the moment, the group that helps me every single day, I really feel like it is a reflection on all of them and what we have produced collectively. I may need the title, however in fact I take into consideration all of the people who assist me get it.”