In his MBA elective, The Business of Sports, Professor Stephen A. Greyser brings an insider's knowledge to topics such as league development, sports and the media, corporate sponsorship of sports, marketing for teams in turnaround situations, and the climate for women's professional sports. Classroom guests (and case study sources) have included sports executives such as Rick Welts, president of NBA Properties; Ed Horne, marketing VP for the NHL; Donald Dell, founder of ProServ; Larry Cancro and Stuart Layne, marketing heads of the Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics, respectively; and NBC-TV research head Nicholas Schiavone. The course was a winner from the moment it debuted - with 65 students - in spring 1997. The Richard P. Chapman Professor at HBS, Greyser is an expert in consumer marketing, advertising, corporate communications, nonprofit management, and sports management. He has taught in the School's MBA and Executive Education Programs for almost 35 years without missing a class (Cal Ripken, take note). He is a prolific author (with twelve books, some three hundred case studies, and scores of journal articles to his credit); a frequent speaker and television panelist and commentator; a current board member of four marketing-related corporations; formerly an editor and later board chairman of the Harvard Business Review; and former executive director of the Marketing Science Institute. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Advertising in honor of his career achievement in advertising. A one-time sports broadcaster and radio-TV producer, Greyser has served as a consultant and/or research collaborator on marketing and communications issues for the NBA, NHL, NFL, and MLB, as well as for the Boston Red Sox, the Miami Heat, and other teams, in addition to numerous corporate and nonprofit organizations. He is a past national vice-chairman of PBS and currently chairs the marketing committee of Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. A lifelong Bostonian, Greyser has held season tickets to both the Celtics and Red Sox for more than three decades; for his beloved Bosox, he was chosen to write And All New England Cheered, a 30th anniversary commemoration of the 1967 Red Sox "Impossible Dream" pennant winners. by Marguerite Rigoglioso |