NYU-SCPS Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management Welcomes Esteemed Members to Adjunct Sports Faculty

NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Divisional Dean Bjorn Hanson of the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS) Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management has announced that five prominent sports business professionals joined the sports management faculty as adjunct faculty members this semester.

They are:

• Douglas Logan, the founding commissioner of Major League Soccer and the former CEO of USA Track and Field. He has also led one of the largest firms in the public assembly facility field, Ogden Corporation. He will teach "Human Resources Management" and "Consumer Behavior" in the undergraduate Sports Management program.
• Ari Nissim, the former director of Football Administration for the New York Jets, where his duties included being the club's chief contract negotiator and salary cap "capologist." Nissim has been a frequent visitor to the Tisch Center as a guest speaker during his time with the Jets. He steps into his first full course teaching experience this semester, teaching "Sports Contracts" in the Sports Business Master's program.
• Tom Richardson, founder and president of Convergence Sports & Media, a digital media and marketing consultancy. He was previously general manager for sports and news at AOL, where he was responsible for the AOL Sports channel and partnerships with major sports leagues, including the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NASCAR. Before AOL, he was the president of digital for the NHL and the head of publishing for the NFL. Richardson started his career at Grey Advertising. He will teach in the Tisch Center's new non-credit program.
• Cheryl Rubin, president of Powerhouse Branding, a boutique brand management and licensing consultancy. She was formerly senior vice president, Brand Management for Warner Bros.' DC Entertainment, where she headed global licensing and brand management for a host of iconic properties. She will teach "Licensing and Merchandising" in the Sports Management Bachelor's and Hospitality Management Bachelor's programs.
• David Weinberg, a former legal counsel to the National Football League, where he worked with the NFL's Event, International, Sponsorship and Consumer Product divisions as the primary point of legal contact for the sport's biggest events, including the Super Bowl and its licensing and branding activities. He also served as legal counsel to Major League Soccer. Now a principal at JDW Consulting, he will teach "Legal Issues in Sports" in the Sports Business Master's program.

"Collectively, these individuals bring experience, from the highest of levels of sports business, to enrich nearly every dimension of the Tisch Center's curriculum," said Tisch Center Academic Chair and Clinical Associate Professor of Sports Management Robert Boland. "They join a roster of innovative and renowned sports professionals, including our veteran adjunct faculty and our 14 full-time faculty, in providing industry connectivity, new ideas and support to our students in and out of the classroom."

In addition to the five new first-time faculty listed above, two alumni of the Tisch Center's graduate program in Sports Business are also joining the faculty for the first time this fall. They are:

• Evan Dabby, a senior director at Major League Soccer for Supporter Relations & Safety who holds a Graduate Certificate in Sports Business from the Tisch Center. He will co-teach the "Professional Franchises" course with Boland.
• Scott Norwood, vice president for sponsorship at Major League Baseball Advanced Media and a graduate of the first master's degree program in Sports Business in 2005, who returns to the Tisch Center to co-teach the graduate level "Market Research" course.

"The return of alumni such as Evan and Scott, who now hold senior leadership positions with sports organizations, is a validation of the Tisch Center's success in preparing its graduates for leadership roles in sports business," said Boland. "They will be exceptional teachers and role models for our students as they pursue their studies and launch their careers."

The seven new faculty members join an impressive roster of faculty who began teaching at the Tisch Center in the Spring 2013 semester, including: Doug Fillis, senior associate athletic director at Rutgers University and who holds a Graduate Certificate in Sports Business from the Tisch Center; Charles Grantham, former executive director of the National Basketball Players Association; Christopher Russo, president of CR Media Ventures and former head of digital media for the NFL, NBC and New Line Cinema; Alison Overholt, former senior editor at ESPN, and editor-in-chief of ESPN Girl and ESPN W magazines; Ted Philipakos, registered soccer agent and a sports business graduate of the Tisch Center; and John Maguire and Doug Smoyer, senior vice president for corporate partnerships and vice president for business development, respectively, of the New York Giants.

About the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management
Founded in 1995, the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management of the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies was established in response to the growing need for hospitality and tourism undergraduate and graduate education. In 1999, the Tisch Center identified the increasing interest and need for sports business education and added programs on accordingly.

Hospitality, sports, and tourism are major global economic sectors, and the Tisch Center serves these growing and evolving industries by offering relevant, cutting-edge curricula that attracts bright, motivated students who seek to become leaders in their fields. Through undergraduate degrees in hotel and tourism management and in sports management, graduate degrees and certificates in hospitality industry studies, sports business, and tourism management, a plethora of noncredit programs, and the Center's world-renowned conferences, the Tisch Center provides students with the tools to enable them to manage change, to communicate, to thrive in complex work environments, and to advance the businesses of hospitality, tourism, and sports. For more information, visit scps.nyu.edu/tisch.

About the NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies (NYU-SCPS)
Established in 1934, NYU-SCPS (scps.nyu.edu) is one of NYU's several degree-granting schools and colleges, each with a unique academic profile. The reputation of NYU-SCPS arises from its place as the NYU home for study and applied research related to key knowledge-based industries where the New York region leads globally. This is manifest in the School's diverse graduate, undergraduate, and noncredit programs in fields such as Real Estate, Real Estate Development, and Construction Management; Hospitality, Tourism, and Sports Management; Global Affairs; Fundraising and Grantmaking; Advanced Digital Applications and Graphic Communications Management and Technology; Publishing; Professional Writing; Human Resource Management and Development, Marketing, Public Relations and Corporate Communication, Management and Systems, Project Management, and Accounting, Finance, and Taxation; Liberal and Allied Arts; and Foreign Languages, Translation, and Interpreting.

More than 100 distinguished full-time faculty members collaborate with an exceptional cadre of practitioner/adjunct faculty and lecturers to create vibrant professional and academic networks that annually attract nearly 5,000 degree-seeking students from around the globe. In addition, the School fulfills the recurrent continuing higher education needs of local and professional communities, as evidenced by close to 48,000 annual noncredit enrollments in individual courses, specialized certificate programs, workshops, and seminars. The School's community is enriched by more than 27,000 degree-holding alumni worldwide, many of whom serve as mentors, guest speakers, and advisory board members.

SOURCE NYU School of Continuing and Professional Studies