Jessica Gelman
VP Customer Marketing & Strategy, Kraft Sports Group
Jessica Gelman is The Kraft Sports Group’s Vice President of Customer Marketing & Strategy. In this capacity she serves as a key strategic and operational advisor to the Executive Management Team of the New England Patriots, New England Revolution, Gillette Stadium, and Patriot Place.
In her eleventh year with the organization, her responsibilities encompass three areas: leading the customer marketing function including ticketing, retail, direct marketing and market research; identifying, evaluating and building new businesses to extend the Patriots’ assets, locally and internationally; and working closely with other functional areas to further develop business strategy/operations.
To further identify areas of growth, potential new businesses and operational improvements, Gelman initiated an analytic approach combining business analytics, market research and operational metrics. This has been critical in prioritizing strategy and business development efforts across the organization. This past year, Gelman earned selection to the Sports Business Journal “Game Changers, Class of 2012″ which honors women who are leading and innovating in sports business.
Prior to the Kraft Sports Group, Gelman worked as a strategy consultant at the Mitchell Madison Group. Her primary areas of focus were the entertainment and financial services industries.
Gelman earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA, cum laude in psychology, from Harvard College. She was honored as Harvard Female Athlete of the Year after leading Harvard to consecutive Ivy League Basketball Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. Subsequently, she played professionally in Europe. Gelman has been inducted into both the New England Basketball Hall of Fame and The Connecticut Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. She is the co-chair of the Harvard Basketball Friends Group.
Gelman co-founded and continues to chair the annual MIT Sloan Sports Business conference, the first and largest analytically focused sports business conference.
Jessica can be reached at jgelman@sloansportsconference.com
