Faculty Advisor

Stephen Graves

Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management, Leaders for Manufacturing Program (LFM)

Stephen Graves develops and applies operations research models and methods to solve problems in manufacturing and distribution systems and in service operations. Currently, he is focusing on supply chain optimization, strategic inventory positioning in a supply chain, and production and capacity planning for various contexts.

Co-Chairs

Daryl Morey

General Manager, Houston Rockets

Daryl Morey enters his second season as General Manager of the Houston Rockets. He oversees all of Basketball Operations for the team. Morey, who officially assumed his current position on May 10, 2007, previously served as the team’s Assistant General Manager after joining the organization on Apr. 3, 2006.

This offseason, Morey traded for one of the best two-way players in the NBA in Ron Artest and added free agent guard Brent Barry to bolster a roster coming off just the eighth 50-win season (55-27) in franchise history. He also made a number of transactions during the 2008 NBA Draft that helped bring in Memphis forward Joey Dorsey and Syracuse forward Donté Greene, who became a significant component in the acquisition of Artest from the Sacramento Kings.

After taking over as General Manager, Morey worked with Owner Leslie Alexander to secure Rick Adelman as the 11th head coach in team annals. In the 2007 NBA Draft, Morey selected Aaron Brooks in the first round (26th overall selection) and traded for the draft rights to Carl Landry (31st overall selection). Morey then traded Vassilis Spanoulis to acquire Argentine forward Luis Scola from the San Antonio Spurs. He also re-signed free agents Chuck Hayes and Dikembe Mutombo. The new additions and returning players joined Rafer Alston, Shane Battier, Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming on a roster that set a number of team records in 2007-08 and won a remarkable 22 straight games, the second-longest winning streak in professional sports history.

Morey came to Houston after serving three years as SVP Operations for the Boston Celtics. With the Celtics, his responsibilities included the development of analytical methods and technology to enhance basketball decisions, such as the draft, trades, and free agency.

Prior to his time with the Celtics, Morey worked as a Principal consultant with an emphasis on sports at The Parthenon Group, a leading strategy consulting firm. While at Parthenon, he led the Joe O’Donnell/Steve Karp Boston Red Sox acquisition team and the current Celtics ownership group acquisition team. Morey was also a statistical consultant with STATS, Inc., the industry pioneer in the use of sports statistics highlighted in the Michael Lewis book Moneyball.

Morey holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science with an emphasis on statistics from Northwestern University, as well as an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Morey also served as the professor for the MIT Sloan class, “Analytical Sports Management.” He continues to be the chairperson for the annual MIT Sloan Sports Conference, the largest annual sports conference hosted by a business school.

Morey grew up in a small town near Medina, Ohio. Married for 12 years, he and his wife have two children, ages eight and six years old.

Jessica Gelman

Director of New Business Development and Operational Initiatives, The Kraft Sports Group

Jessica Gelman is The Kraft Sports Group's Director of New Business Development and Operational Initiatives.  She leads the Business Development Department, which she created and has nurtured during her 7 years with the organization.  In this capacity she serves as a key strategic and operational advisor to the Executive Management Team of the New England Patriots, New England Revolution, Gillette Stadium, and Patriot Place.

Her responsibilities are four primary areas: identifying, evaluating and creating new businesses; providing strategic analysis to leverage the Patriots’ assets, locally and Internationally; overseeing our direct marketing efforts; and working closely with existing business units to further develop business strategy and operations. Most notable of the new businesses Gelman created is the first sports loyalty rewards credit card program, Extra Points, since rolled out across the NFL.

To further identify areas of growth, potential new businesses and operational improvements, Gelman initiated an analytic approach combining market research, direct marketing analysis, quantitative customer experience feedback, and operational metrics. This has been critical in prioritizing strategy and business development efforts across the organization.

Prior to the Patriots, Gelman worked as a strategy consultant at the Mitchell Madison Group. Her primary areas of focus were the entertainment and financial services industries.

Gelman earned an MBA from Harvard Business School and a BA, cum laude in psychology, from Harvard College. She was honored as Harvard Female Athlete of the Year after leading Harvard to consecutive Ivy League Basketball Championships and NCAA Tournament appearances. Subsequently, she played professionally in Europe.  Gelman is the co-chair of the Harvard Women’s Basketball Friends Group.  She co-chairs the annual MIT Sloan Sports Business conference, the first analytically focused sports business conference.

Student Organizers

Mike Beaser

MBA Co-Lead and Co-President, MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media & Sports Club

Mike Beaser is a second year MBA student at MIT Sloan, where he serves as president of the Entertainment, Media and Sports Club, as well as the Operations Management Club.  Prior to business school, Mike worked for five years as an actuarial pension plan consultant, most recently at Deloitte Consulting, where he calculated the liabilities associated with company pension plans.  He graduated from Tufts University in 2002, where he majored in Mathematics and minored in Economics.

 

Josh Miller

MBA Co-Lead and Co-President, MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media & Sports Club

Josh Miller is a second year MBA student at MIT Sloan and is a member of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation Program.  He is presently a co-founder of a startup, 3Play Media, focused on flexible and scalable transcription, captioning, and search solutions.  Prior to MIT, Josh worked in management consulting at Mercator Partners, a Boston-based boutique consulting firm focused on the telecom and media industries.  Josh is a former Division I baseball player. He currently serves as co-president of the VC/PE Club and the Entertainment, Media & Sports Club at MIT Sloan.  Josh graduated from Brown University in 2004 with a dual concentration in organizational behavior and business economics.

Greg Korbas

VP, Logistics

Greg Korbas is a first year MBA student at MIT Sloan, where he serves as a managing vice president for the Entertainment, Media and Sports Club. He is also a member of the Sales Club and the Marketing Club.
Prior to business school, Greg was a Software Systems Engineer for The MITRE Corporation, where he worked in the Battlespace Awareness Technologies department.

Greg graduated from Northeastern University in 2008, where he majored in Electrical Engineering and minored in Business Administration.

John Batalis

VP, Logistics

John is a first year student at MIT Sloan, where he serves as a managing vice president of the Entertainment, Media and Sports Club and is also a member of the Management Consulting and General Management clubs.

Prior to MIT Sloan, John worked at The Parthenon Group, a boutique management consulting firm based in Boston and then in a sales and operations management role at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Company, a large textbook publisher. John graduated from Middlebury College in 2001 with a double major in Economics and Psychology.

Srinu Vemulapalli

VP, Panels

Srinu Vemulapalli is a second year MBA Student at MIT Sloan, where he serves as VP of Sports for the Entertainment, Media, and Sports Club.  Prior to business school, Srinu worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.  He also worked in corporate strategy roles within the technology sector.

Srinu graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, where he majored in Finance.

Jonathan Richard

VP, Marketing and Co-President, MIT Sloan Entertainment, Media & Sports Club

Jonathan Richard is a second year MBA student at MIT Sloan and a Co-President of the Sloan Entertainment, Media and Sports (EMS) Club.  Prior to MIT Sloan, Jonathan worked more than 7 years as a Senior Consultant for two IT Consulting firms, Computer Sciences Corporation and Collaborative Consulting.  As an EMS officer, Jonathan coordinated the 2008 LA/Vegas trek and acted as lead of the Gaming Panel at the 2008 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.  He graduated from Boston College in 1999 with a Bachelor of Sciences degree in Finance and Economics.

Ben Schlesinger

VP, Marketing

Ben Schlesinger is a first-year MBA student at MIT Sloan and Managing Vice President of Marketing for the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.  Prior to Sloan, Ben was a Senior Research Analyst at McKinsey & Company, focusing on the U.S. telecom industry.  Before that, he was a Project Manager at Circadian Technologies, where he helped build a new litigation consulting practice.

Ben graduated from Brandeis University in 2002 with Honors in Politics and a minor in Economics.