Greg and Joshua to help out in Haiti

I wanted to make you aware of an upcoming trip that Joshua Madden (from the HR team) and I will be taking. We are headed to Haiti to work with a group called the Global Orphan Project Team (GO). From what I know, he and I will be helping locate Haitian children that have lost their parents or family in the recent tragic earthquake that hit the country and get them stabilized and relocated to GO-sponsored orphanages. As I understand it, we may also be involved in the construction of another orphanage as many of the existing and recently constructed facilities are overflowing with children.

I’m sure many of you have been following the events in Haiti and may be aware of this, but to complicate matters, the trafficking of children for sale and for sex-trade is a major problem in the country. For that reason the need to locate these at risk children quickly and get them to safe places is hugely important. You’d think by now they’d all be in safe hands, but that is simply not the case. It’s hard to even fathom what the people of Haiti and more specifically the children have had to endure and will continue to deal with for some time to come.

This is not a company sponsored or affiliated trip, but if you care to follow us along on our trip, we will be blogging (see Greg’s Blog in the sidbar to the right) and tweeting (@learfield) to the extent we have communication access.  I’m looking forward to the trip and the chance to serve and learn. If you have a desire to help, let Joshua or me know or we may post some information on how to do so. Please pray for the people of Haiti and their recovery and that Joshua and I will find unique ways to care for, serve and love these people who are in such great need.

–Greg

Management restructuring

Clyde shared some changes with you last week about our management team. I’d like to share some more with you today. We’ve designed all these changes with YOU in mind. We want to give you the very best support, service & autonomy possible to enable you to help us win in the marketplace. Here goes…

Stan Koenigsfeld has agreed to take over the senior level management duties for the Midwest (Heartland) Region in Sports. This is a major part of our company containing 18 sports properties. In addition, Stan will have senior level oversight of the News Division. Given this considerable new responsibility for Stan, he will soon be adding additional management muscle to the News division to give it the day to day leadership and focus it requires. Stan will be an Executive Vice President and will remain in the Jefferson City office.

Now, let me clearly state that the continued success, development and independence of the News Division is critical to us as a company. It’s the heritage part of our company and the market leader in farm & news broadcasting and content development. Stan’s new role allows the company to more broadly tap into his considerable leadership skills, and by adding additional management support for the News Division, it ensures that the business continues to get the direct attention it needs to remain as robust and profitable as possible.

Andy Rawlings is being named COO for Learfield. In addition to his duties leading the Sports Division, he’ll have day to day responsibility for the Sales and Operations for the entire company. Andy will be an Executive Vice President and will remain in the Dallas office.

Roger Gardner is ramping up a variety of new innovative business opportunities that Clyde touched on in his recent blog entry. In addition to his leadership in the development of new businesses, Roger will also oversee all future acquisitions. Roger will also give continued leadership to the areas of diversity, and professional development across all company business units.

Paul Schofer will remain CFO and head up the ISG group, which structurally remains as it is today with accounting, human resources, engineering and information technology.

Some of you have been asking about the timing of my move to the Jefferson City office. I realize however that the curiosity stems mostly from the desire from my coworkers here to confiscate all the belongings from my office. My daughter just changed schools this year, so my current plan (though subject to change) is to allow my kids to finish the school year here in Plano and move in the spring. In the meantime I will go back and forth as needed. I understand there are spare cubes in the Accounting and IT areas, so maybe I’ll float back and forth between those areas for my Jefferson City office location. I’ve heard rumblings that both areas are in quite a fuss over the chance to get me to office with them….Ha!

All kidding aside, there are tremendous opportunities out there for our company and I am going to do my very best to serve you all and help us capitalize on those opportunities to make our company the very best it can be. Please join me in congratulating these gentlemen in their new roles.

– Greg