The Miami Marlins became the first professional U.S. sports team of one of the four major leagues to have women serving simultaneously as president and general manager.
The Marlins named Caroline O’Connor their president of business operations. Kim Ng was named general manager in November 2020. O’Connor will handle the off-field business while Ng continues to run the team on the field.
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“I’ve always worked for first-class organizations, and that’s certainly what [chairman and principal owner] Bruce [Sherman] wants to see here and really what the mandate is,” O’Connor said in a news conference on Monday, via the team’s website. “I think using best practices and being the kind of organization that people want to work for and want to support the community, that’s exactly what we want here, and a lot of where I came from.”
O’Connor is the second woman to serve as president for an MLB team. Seattle’s Catie Griggs is the other. O’Connor was brought into the fold initially by then-CEO Derek Jeter in 2017 to serve as a senior vice president and chief of staff and then became the team’s chief operating officer in 2019.
O’Connor studied at Rutgers University in New Jersey and then New York University. She’s worked for IBM, UBS Investment Bank and Morgan Stanley. She wasn’t thinking about a career in sports until Jeter came calling. She’s been with the Marlins ever since.
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“I think it’s huge,” she added. “I think we’re a really special organization. Bruce’s put a lot of trust in us, and he really looked at merit and who can do the job. I’m really excited about it. I think it makes our organization unique and stand out, and shows what women can do and the roles that they can hold.”
The Marlins have been in flux. The team has a budding superstar in Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Sandy Alcantara on the roster. But acquisitions like Jorge Soler and Jesus Aguilar didn’t exactly make waves for the team in 2022.
Don Mattingly stepped down as manager and the team hired Skip Schumaker as the team’s manager for 2023.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
