Jeffrey Pollack

Jeffrey is a Senior Advisor at McKinsey & Company and the first-ever Professor of Practice in Sport Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Isenberg School of Management. He serves confidentially and selectively as a professional development coach to executives, students and ventures in the sports, entertainment and media industries, including multiple NBA and NFL teams and iHeart Media.

Jeffrey is also Vice Chairman and President of the Ones Basketball League (OBL)—a new global sports and entertainment venture co-founded by NBA All-Star and Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady. OBL is an elite competition designed to celebrate the world’s most skilled one-on-one players and the true essence of basketball.

Jeffrey is the first-ever Executive-in-Residence at the Rutgers Global Sports Business Program and is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Miami School of Law, where he co-teaches “A Playbook for Leadership and the Law.” He trained as a leadership and organizational performance coach at Rutgers University and is certified by the International Coaching Federation.

Before joining OBL, Jeffrey served as President and CEO of the XFL. He joined the league in 2019 as President and COO, where he led all strategic planning and business operations—reporting directly to Chairman and Founder Vince McMahon. Under his leadership, the XFL launched in 2020 to critical acclaim and proved that spring football in the United States can work. Following the XFL’s shutdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, he led the organization through an orderly bankruptcy process and successful sale and transition to a new ownership group featuring Redbird Capital, Dwayne Johnson and Dany Garcia.

Before his leadership role at the XFL, Jeffrey was Special Advisor and Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer for the NFL Los Angeles Chargers. He has advised successful buyers on the acquisition of teams in the NBA and NHL and served as Executive Chairman of the Professional Bull Riders. Jeffrey also served as President and Commissioner of the World Series of Poker, which, during his tenure, shattered all previous attendance records, became a worldwide sports and entertainment phenomenon and crossed the $1 billion mark in total prize money awarded.

Earlier in his career, he was the Managing Director of Broadcasting and New Media for NASCAR—just as the sport consolidated its media rights for the first time and broke through the national consciousness. Jeffrey served as Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications for the National Basketball Association and as a Strategic Advisor to Commissioner David Stern during collective bargaining negotiations with the NBPA.

In 1994, Jeffrey launched The Sports Business Daily, the original and leading daily trade publication for the sports industry. Through his vision and direction as Founder, President and Publisher, “The Daily” pioneered a new genre of sports journalism, became an industry standard and must-read for sports executives, and gave rise to a proliferation of sports business news and information services around the world.

Jeffrey began his career as a human rights advocate and legislative assistant in Washington, D.C., and then served as a political campaign manager and crisis communications consultant for Winner + Associates and the affiliated firm of Winner + Mandabach Campaigns.

In addition to receiving one of the first Primetime Emmy Awards presented for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television Programming and a Sports Emmy for Outstanding Innovative Technical Achievement, Jeffrey received the first-ever Billboard Digital Entertainment Award for Best Interactive Television Programming. He has appeared on The Sporting News’ List of The Top 100 Most Powerful People in Sports and was named by Sports Business Journal to its inaugural list of 40 Under 40.

During his tenure at the World Series of Poker, Jeffrey received the Chairman’s Excellence in Leadership Award—presented to a select group of Harrah’s Entertainment executives who achieved outstanding business results through innovation. He has also received The Graduate School of Political Management’s Alumni Achievement Award and, most recently in 2022, the Harold J. VanderZwaag Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Business—which recognizes alumni who display professional excellence and outstanding achievement in the sports industry and dedication to the McCormack Department of Sport Management.

Jeffrey is Chairman of the Community Advisory Board of 90.7 WFUV Radio in New York; a member of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and an Accredited Member of the Public Relations Society of America; and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission.

Jeffrey has a bachelor’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, a master’s degree from The Graduate School of Political Management and a master’s degree in sports management from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He also completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program. Read Less ^