Onto the Next Adventure

I am on to a new adventure!

I recently made the incredibly hard decision to move on from Monumental Sports & Entertainment where I have spent the last four plus years. I hadn’t been looking to make a move, but life is at times unpredictable. So unpredictable in fact, that I had three extremely interesting and very different opportunities land in my lap within a week of one-another.

Here’s the quick and dirty:

At the beginning of July 2017, several opportunities materialized out of virtually nowhere. The first opportunity was a Vice President of Business Intelligence at another professional sports organization. The second was a Vice President of Marketing role at a startup software company. The third was to assume the role of Head of Marketing Strategy within a Fortune 150.

I feel incredibly fortunate and humbled to have been presented with each of these opportunities, each in their own right incredibly interesting and exciting. One allowed me to remain in the sports industry in which I had been working for the last four years. Another allowed me an opportunity to help shape the beginnings of a new organization. And finally, the last allowed me to blaze a new path forward and build a marketing strategy team from the ground up with a number of resources and autonomy at my disposal.

Ultimately my decision to depart for a new opportunity and a new career direction was based on a number of things. I ended up choosing the Head of Marketing Strategy role for a several reasons.

1) Autonomy

The ability to build and run a department using strategy I believed would work.

2) Looking for a challenge

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m at my best and happiest when I’m being challenged.

3) Opportunity to build a team from scratch

Not just a team of 1 or 2, but an extensive team with multiple divisions, each with sub-departments. I think one of the things I’m best at is building a team and comradery – I want to put this to the test on a large scale.

4) Fortune 150 experience

I’ve worked for a world class sports organization, now I want to take my agile abilities to something bigger and more established to see how they fit and mesh.

5) Push myself out of my comfort zone

I think it’s easy to get lazy if you’re comfortable. I find that I grow most when I’m in changing and maybe uncomfortable situations.

6) Return to Chicagoland

I never thought I’d return full-time to Chicago, but being around family and friends whom I haven’t seen regularly in almost a decade was a cherry on top.

There were certainly other factors, but these were some of the biggest. It also certainly helped to have a significant other who supported the move. That said, onward and upward.

-Alex