Full Name
Stan Kasten
Job Title
President & Chief Executive Officer
Company
Los Angeles Dodgers
Speaker Bio
For four decades, Stan Kasten has been a highly respected sports figure and developed a reputation for creating winning franchises, relying on three pillars – scouting and player development, enhancing the fan experience and community outreach – to establish franchises built for long-term success on and off the field.
That track record has continued during his tenure with the Dodgers, where the club has had an unprecedented run of success. On the field, Los Angeles has clinched eight consecutive NL West division titles, won three of the past four National League pennants and was crowned as 2020 World Series champions. Since Kasten became the Dodgers’ President and CEO, the team has topped the Majors in attendance each full season under his leadership while continuously making improvements to Dodger Stadium to keep the league’s third-oldest stadium among the best facilities in baseball. The Dodgers were also named ESPN’s 2020 Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year for the work and community impact of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. These achievements led Major League Baseball to award the Dodgers the 2022 All-Star Game (rescheduled from 2020), bringing the league’s jewel event back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1980.
Kasten has been a member of numerous MLB, NBA and NHL ownership committees during his professional career and is also a former trustee of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1999, Kasten became the first sports figure to hold the title of president of three different teams in three different major sports simultaneously, doing so with MLB’s Atlanta Braves, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers.
In 1979, at age 27, Kasten became the youngest general manager in NBA history with the Hawks, a position he held until 1990. Kasten became the Hawks’ president in 1986. During his lengthy tenure in the Hawks’ front office, Kasten built the Hawks into a perennial contender, including four consecutive 50-win seasons from 1986-89 and a stretch of seven consecutive playoff appearances in the 1990’s, and became the first - and only – NBA executive to win back-to-back Executive of the Year awards in 1986-87.
Kasten also became president of the Braves in 1986. From 1987-2003, the Braves won more games than any other team in MLB and won 14 consecutive division titles (1991-2005), five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series.
In 1999, when the NHL awarded Atlanta an expansion team, Kasten added the title of president of the Thrashers, as well as chairman of the newly constructed Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena). Kasten held all three positions until 2003, when he stepped down.
Prior to joining the Dodgers, Kasten was president of the Washington Nationals from 2006-10, where he worked to re-energize a dormant baseball fan base and simultaneously established a crown jewel franchise in Washington, D.C.
Kasten, the Los Angeles Sports Council’s 2013 Executive of the Year, is Emeritus Director of the Sports Lawyer Association and serves on the LA84 Foundation Board of Directors, the Rose Bowl Institute Advisory Board and the Board of Advisors for the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). In addition, Kasten was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.
A native of Lakewood, N.J., Kasten is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University Law School. Kasten and his wife, Helen, have four children: Alana, Corey, Sherry and Jay.
That track record has continued during his tenure with the Dodgers, where the club has had an unprecedented run of success. On the field, Los Angeles has clinched eight consecutive NL West division titles, won three of the past four National League pennants and was crowned as 2020 World Series champions. Since Kasten became the Dodgers’ President and CEO, the team has topped the Majors in attendance each full season under his leadership while continuously making improvements to Dodger Stadium to keep the league’s third-oldest stadium among the best facilities in baseball. The Dodgers were also named ESPN’s 2020 Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year for the work and community impact of the Los Angeles Dodgers Foundation. These achievements led Major League Baseball to award the Dodgers the 2022 All-Star Game (rescheduled from 2020), bringing the league’s jewel event back to Los Angeles for the first time since 1980.
Kasten has been a member of numerous MLB, NBA and NHL ownership committees during his professional career and is also a former trustee of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In 1999, Kasten became the first sports figure to hold the title of president of three different teams in three different major sports simultaneously, doing so with MLB’s Atlanta Braves, the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks and the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers.
In 1979, at age 27, Kasten became the youngest general manager in NBA history with the Hawks, a position he held until 1990. Kasten became the Hawks’ president in 1986. During his lengthy tenure in the Hawks’ front office, Kasten built the Hawks into a perennial contender, including four consecutive 50-win seasons from 1986-89 and a stretch of seven consecutive playoff appearances in the 1990’s, and became the first - and only – NBA executive to win back-to-back Executive of the Year awards in 1986-87.
Kasten also became president of the Braves in 1986. From 1987-2003, the Braves won more games than any other team in MLB and won 14 consecutive division titles (1991-2005), five National League pennants and the 1995 World Series.
In 1999, when the NHL awarded Atlanta an expansion team, Kasten added the title of president of the Thrashers, as well as chairman of the newly constructed Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena). Kasten held all three positions until 2003, when he stepped down.
Prior to joining the Dodgers, Kasten was president of the Washington Nationals from 2006-10, where he worked to re-energize a dormant baseball fan base and simultaneously established a crown jewel franchise in Washington, D.C.
Kasten, the Los Angeles Sports Council’s 2013 Executive of the Year, is Emeritus Director of the Sports Lawyer Association and serves on the LA84 Foundation Board of Directors, the Rose Bowl Institute Advisory Board and the Board of Advisors for the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL). In addition, Kasten was inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 2023.
A native of Lakewood, N.J., Kasten is a graduate of New York University and Columbia University Law School. Kasten and his wife, Helen, have four children: Alana, Corey, Sherry and Jay.
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