Edward R. Coverage, the Inexperienced Bay Packers’ chief working officer and normal counsel, has been elected because the group’s subsequent Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, a place he’ll formally assume in July of 2025 on the Packers Annual Assembly of Shareholders when Mark Murphy formally retires from the function.
Coverage, who’s coming into his thirteenth 12 months general with the group and seventh as chief working officer, was elected by the Packers Board of Administrators because the franchise’s eleventh Chief Government Officer Monday morning in a unanimous vote, upon suggestion of the search committee led by chair Susan Finco and vice chair Dan Ariens.
“Congratulations to Ed on this well-deserved promotion to what I imagine is probably the most distinctive and significant place on the planet {of professional} sports activities,” mentioned Murphy. “Ed has been an amazing asset to the group throughout his 12 years right here and has been drastically instrumental in our success. His work on Titletown has been notably impactful. He’s extremely revered – each within the constructing and inside the NFL. I’ve loved working with him and am assured he will likely be a wonderful steward for the group.
“Within the coming 12 months, he and I’ll proceed to work intently collectively to make sure a easy transition for our workers, gamers and followers.
“Thanks to the search committee for his or her thorough work on this course of. I’m enthusiastic about this coming season and the way forward for the Packers.”
Murphy will proceed to guide the Packers over the subsequent 13 months and can work with Coverage throughout a transition interval that can embrace the upcoming season and culminate in July of 2025. Moreover, Coverage will stay in his COO function till that point.
“I’m extremely honored, excited and grateful to the search committee, the Board, the shareholders and all the group for this treasured and one-of-a-kind alternative,” mentioned Coverage. “I’m notably grateful to Mark for 12 years of mentorship. I’m trying ahead to constructing on his management and appreciable success on and off the sector.
“That is the very best job in sports activities. We’re the stewards of probably the most iconic and distinctive group in all {of professional} sports activities. I’m excited to proceed to work with so many gifted teammates who’ve ensured the Packers’ constant success on and off the sector. We’re the folks’s crew, and I really like being part of it.
“We are going to proceed our relentless concentrate on constructing a profitable tradition that transcends the enjoying subject. The Lombardi Trophy will all the time be our North Star and making certain a optimistic influence on our group will proceed to be paramount in our decision-making. We’ve the best followers in sports activities and can by no means take their dedication to the Packers with no consideration.
“Twelve years in the past, my spouse, Christy, and I moved to Inexperienced Bay from New York Metropolis with our two sons. We embraced this group and it embraced us again even stronger. We love elevating our household right here. That is dwelling.”
The group’s expansive and inclusive search, which adopted NFL pointers that apply to crew government positions, started with preliminary work by the Government Committee in early 2023 and continued with the formation of the search committee in Might. A subsequent search course of and timeline was established to comply with NFL necessities that interviews with candidates at present in league and crew positions happen solely between the top of the NFL season in February by the beginning of coaching camp in July.
“Our Board thanks the search committee for the numerous hours of labor they put into this course of,” mentioned Finco. “Every member shared their experience and invaluable insights as we labored collaboratively all through the search. We unanimously agreed that Ed Coverage is a wonderful individual to guide our group, has an inspiring and modern imaginative and prescient of the long run, and provides us nice continuity of management that can permit for a seamless transition.
“We respect all that Mark does for the Packers and we stay up for the 12 months forward underneath his management, together with an thrilling soccer season and the 2025 NFL Draft subsequent April.”
The search committee labored by an inventory of greater than 90 prospects, candidates and referrals, with a variety of high-quality candidates thought of from throughout the NFL, sports activities, enterprise and leisure. The committee then carried out digital and in-person interviews in June which led to the advice of Coverage.
“We had a accountability to the group, its employers and gamers; to our shareholders, followers and group, in addition to the NFL: to conduct a complete, inclusive search as a way to determine one of the best candidate who can lead our group into the long run,” mentioned Ariens. “Ed brings unbelievable skills and expertise to this function, as he has demonstrated all through his profession with the Packers.”
The Packers Board of Administrators search committee, along with Finco and Ariens, is comprised of Board Members who symbolize a various cross part of expertise and industries. It contains Mike Simmer (treasurer, government committee), DJ Lengthy (government committee, personnel and compensation committee), Marcia Anderson (government committee), Karl Schmidt (government committee), Michael Barber (Packers Basis chair), Jeff Joerres (funding committee chair), Eddie Garcia (former participant, board member at-large), Robyn Davis (board member at-large) and Mike Daniels (board member at-large).
Coverage, along with directing the group’s authorized affairs, has represented the Packers on the NFL degree on authorized issues and leads the group’s communications, advertising and fan engagement, gross sales and enterprise improvement, safety, and improvement and hospitality departments.
He additionally has led the membership’s endeavors to develop Titletown, a 45-acre mixed-use actual property improvement instantly west of Lambeau Subject. Titletown maximizes its distinctive location to draw guests, spur regional financial progress, supply facilities to residents and complement the higher Inexperienced Bay space’s draw as a wonderful location to reside, work, play and go to on a year-round foundation. A chief element of the event spearheaded by Coverage is TitletownTech, an early-stage enterprise capital agency shaped out of a partnership between the Packers and Microsoft. TitletownTech invests in entrepreneurs constructing options in industries core to Wisconsin and the Midwest and its distinctive ecosystem offers founders with help and steering tailor-made to their wants.
Coverage’s skilled sports activities expertise contains 9 years (2001-09) with the Area Soccer League, together with a interval (2008-09) through which he served as commissioner, president and CEO. He additionally served as deputy commissioner and president (2006-08), chief working officer (2004-06) and government vice president-strategic league improvement and authorized affairs (2001-04). Throughout his tenure with the league, he oversaw all enterprise and operations of the AFL, together with strategic improvement, authorized affairs, gross sales, finance, advertising, broadcasting, digital media, soccer operations, labor relations, occasions and human sources.
He additionally served as an government advisor with the NFL (2009-10), a place through which he suggested and assisted NFL senior administration in strategic and improvement issues and in addition labored with senior executives on particular tasks inside varied enterprise areas.
Earlier in his skilled profession, Coverage practiced regulation at Thompson Hine LLP in Cleveland (1999-2001), the place his work included litigation, sports activities labor relations, sports activities facility development and business actual property, and in addition at Heller Ehrman in San Francisco (1994-99). He’s a member of the state bars of California and Ohio, and a member of the Sports activities Attorneys Affiliation. He’s a three-time recipient of the SportsBusiness Journal’s Forty Underneath 40 award in recognition of his achievements in sports activities enterprise, and a member of the Forty Underneath 40 Corridor of Fame.
A Midwestern native, Coverage was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio. He earned a bachelor’s diploma with honors in accounting with an emphasis in finance from the College of Notre Dame in 1993 and a regulation diploma from Stanford College in 1996.
