Sports Industry Leaders to Speak at Caldwell University

Panel to include NY Giants, NBA and North American Soccer League Professionals

Caldwell University will hold its inaugural Sport Industry Leaders Series panel, titled “Perspectives on Launching a Successful Career in Sports,” 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7, at the Alumni Theater on campus.

The panel session, sponsored by the university’s Division of Business, will bring together four leaders in the sports and entertainment field for a discussion of issues in seeking and managing a career in sports.

The event will feature William Heller and Carly Warren of the New York Giants, Jack Bell of the North American Soccer League and John Zisa of the NBA.

Heller is senior vice president and general counsel for the Giants. As the team’s chief legal officer, he is involved in all aspects of the Giants’ business, from labor and employment, to sponsorships, naming rights, licensing, entertainment and other contracts, to assistance with the legal aspects of football operations. He reports directly to the team’s president and chief executive officer, John K. Mara. During his 32-year legal career, Heller has worked at major law firms throughout New Jersey.

Carly Warren is the premium services coordinator for the Giants. She is responsible for providing hospitality services to all Giants suite partners from invoicing to event planning. Her career path to the Giants began in Florida where she worked in event management as an intern for the Gator Bowl. Warren began her career in the ticket office, selling ticket packages and doing promotions for the Jacksonville Jaguars. She also worked for a local minor league baseball team. She continued to develop her skills as a manager for Enterprise Rent-A-Car.  Her hard work and determination allowed her to rise through the ranks and led to her supervisory position with the Giants. Warren earned a master’s degree in sports administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Jack Bell is a senior media specialist for the North American Soccer League. Before joining the organization, Bell spent 24 years as an editor and writer in the sports department at the New York Times. At the Times, he wrote the weekly soccer report for the print publication for almost 15 years and more recently edited and wrote for the popular Goal blog on the paper’s website. Before being recruited by the Times, Bell worked as a journalist with publications in the United States and Australia. A Long Island native, Bell played soccer scholastically in Seaford and Rockville Centre, New York. He is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin.

John Zisa is entering his fourth season with the NBA referee operations department. Zisa learned early in his career serving in the operations department of the New Jersey Nets that he should acquire and develop skills in multiple areas within the organization. These lessons provided him the opportunity to move to the NBA corporate office where his duties include research and development, overseeing the game reviewer program, referee training and development, scouting and referee candidate identification and event management. Zisa has been integral in the roll-out of the NBA instant replay system. He also serves as executive vice president of Cutting Edge Sports Management, hosts of the Dream Bowl.

The panel session will feature comments from the speakers and a Q&A with the audience and will be moderated by Adjunct Professor of Sport Management Neil Malvone. Dr. Bernard C. O’Rourke, associate dean of the Business Division, was active in bringing the sport management program to Caldwell University, and he believes this series will “help bring heightened awareness of sport management here at Caldwell University.” He looks forward to continuing the Sport Industry Leaders Series in future semesters.

Admission to the lecture is free, and light refreshments will be served following the event.

For further information, contact Ilene DeMaio at idemaio@caldwell.edu or 973-618-3255.