Ianello, Puri Honored with SportsBusiness Journals Forty Under 40 Award

SeatGeek executive Jeff Ianello (BS, 2002) and University of California Berkeley Chief Revenue Officer for Athletics Ashwin Puri (BS, 2001) have become the tenth and eleventh McCormack Sport Management alums to receive SportsBusiness Journal’s highly-coveted Forty Under 40 Award. No other sport management program in the country boasts of more recipients of SBJ’s Forty-Under-40 Awards, a program initiated in 1999 to identify and honor the most promising young executives in sports business under the age of 40.  

 

Ianello and Puri will be honored at the Forty Under 40 Gala on April 20 in Dana Point, CA.

 

"Without my experience at UMass, I would not be where I am today,” stated Puri. “The knowledge base built from experienced educators, relevant course work and the real world experience I gained from the required internship put me in an advantageous position early in my career, and continues to pay dividends to this day,” added Puri.

 

Added Ianello, “I can specifically point to my experience in the Sport Management program as being fundamental to obtaining my first job in the industry, as well as the practical experience to identify the role I was best suited for.  The interactive nature of many of the courses forces one to break out of their shell and participate.  No class had a greater impact than Haigis Hoopla, which gave me true practical experience on how to plan and execute a major event.”  

Upon graduating, Ianello spent 13 years with the NBA Phoenix Suns, working his way from a Season Sales Account Executive to Senior Vice President of Sales and Service. Ianello left the Suns to become Vice President of Team Marketing and Business Operations at the NBA in 2013. After nearly two years, Ianello landed at his current position with live event technology company, SeatGeek, as the Executive Vice President of Client Partnerships.

 

After graduating from UMass in 2001, Puri served as the Assistant Director of Sales at the New Jersey Nets for 5 years. With a clear focus in revenue generation, Puri has held positions as Director of Sales at the New York Jets and Director of Team Marketing and Business Operations at the NBA. Puri currently serves as the Chief Financial Officer, Associate Athletic Director at the University of California Berkeley.

 

The other McCormack Sport Management alumni to garner SBJ’s Forty Under 40 Award include: Woodie Dixon, Burke Magnus, Howie Nuchow, Zaileen Janmohamed, Amy Gleeson, Wade Martin, Jeff Price, Jeffrey Pollack, and David Wright.