Athletes & Executives – Our game is business

Tracy Evans

Tracy Evans grew up in Hornell, New York in an avid sports family of top-tier athletes.  From a very early age, Tracy was snow skiing and competing in both gymnastics and Equestrian riding. Tracy’s brother Bob, U.S. Freestyle Ski Team Aerialist and two-time Olympic Coach, introduced Tracy to the world of Freestyle Aerials in 1989. Though she swore she’d never do something that crazy, Tracy’s raw athletic ability combined with her background in trampolines and gymnastics made her a natural in Aerials.

Tracy made the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team in 1991 and competed in the 1994, 1998, and 2002 Olympic Games, and earned the title of 2002 U.S. National Champion. In  2008 Tracy was inspired by a volunteer trip she took to Africa. She experienced first hand the positive impact sport had on the youth with whom she worked. Seeing how little access many of these children have to sports, she returned to the United States determined to create a year-round community sports education program for kids in developing countries.

Recognizing the power of sports from her own experience as an Olympic athlete, Tracy wanted to start a nonprofit organization that would help educate, empower and teach life lessons in a fun and engaging setting. This desire led to the creation of Kids Play Int’l in December 2008 under the umbrella of People Helping People International. In 2012, Evans revised Kids Play’s mission and vision to better focus and increase her impact on the kids participating in the Let’s Play program and to identify girls to become a part of her Girls Dream Big! Empowerment program.  Kids Play International is also now its own stand alone non-profit organization.

Tracy is also a Casting Director who owns and operates AthleteSource CASTING. Her motivation and competitive spirit continually drive her to set herself apart in the Sport and Active Lifestyle Casting industry.  AthleteSource CASTING has developed a specialized niche and solid reputation in the Commercial, Film, Television and Print industries.

Tracy serves on the Athlete Advisory Board of the United Athletes Foundation (UAF). She was honored to receive the Female Athlete Philanthropist of the Year award from UAF in 2011.

George Tinsley, Sr.

George Tinsley, Sr. is a master of the triple threat position in life, basketball, and business. He is CEO of PenGeo Inc., Tinsley Group, Inc., Tinsley Family Concessions, Inc., GW Tinsley Consulting, LLC and Diverse Distributing; collectively Tampa Bay’s second largest black-owned enterprise and one of the fastest growing independent restaurant and food service companies in the nation. He credits his roots on the basketball courts of the impoverished Smoketown neighborhood, in Louisville, Kentucky, for teaching him life’s most valuable lesson: always be prepared to shoot, pass, or dribble the ball.

Born in Louisville, KY, George was abandoned by his mother, adopted by an elderly babysitter, Mrs. Willie Tinsley, and reared in poverty. But George’s talent was as undeniable as his stardom. He was recruited by, and accepted a scholarship to, Kentucky Wesleyan College in 1966 and, as a freshman, led his team to its first of four NCAA National Division II Finals and three Division II NCAA National Championships. He was twice named first team NCAA Division II All-American.

George played in four NCAA Final Four Tournaments, never lost a game, and ended every season by winning the final game. He was drafted by the Chicago Bulls (NBA) and the Oakland Oaks (ABA). george opted for the ABA, where he played for the Oakland Oaks, the Washington Capitals, the Miami Floridians, the Kentucky Colonels and the New York Nets (now Brooklyn Nets).

In his triple threat tradition, George was already prepared to pursue other options when his career with the ABA ended. He translated his talent for teamwork and leadership to the corporate sector, beginning his business career at Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation, where he worked with pioneer and world-renowned franchisor, Colonel Harlan Sanders, in developing his skill set of management and entrepreneurship. This is where George paved the way to his first franchise in 1984. His KFC restaurant, located in Auburndale, Florida has won the KFC Million Dollar Sales Award since 1986. This restaurant has also been in the top five sales categories, per town size, since 1986.

After nearly 30 years of entrepreneurship, George holds as many records in business as he did in basketball. He was twice honored as KFC’s Premier Operator. His T.G.I. Fridays in Tampa has won the Highest Domestic Franchise Sales award and the Franchise of the Year award nine consecutive times. He was named Florida’s Minority Entrepreneur of the Year in 1989, inducted into the Louisville Male High School Hall of Fame in 1986, Smoketown Hall of Fame in 1985, the Kentucky Wesleyan  Alumni Hall of Fame in 2005, the Kentucky Black Sports Hall of Fame in 2011, The Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame 2011, and he was recently inducted into the Kentucky Wesleyan College Athletic Hall of Fame Inaugural Class of 2013. George also holds an Honorary Doctorate Degree from Kentucky Wesleyan in Humanities. In 2010 He had the distinction of being the first athlete & African American in the school’s history to deliver the commencement speech.

George has served with the National Basketball Retired Players Association (NBRPA) for five years as Treasurer, President and Past President. He is currently in his second term on the Board of Directors.

Along with his business and community work, George is a sought after motivational speaker. He teaches business professionals how to turn obstacles into opportunities. His inspiring story of rags to riches is proof that one’s situation doesn’t determine one’s destination or level of success. In the midst of all his personal successes, George says his greatest treasure is his family. He and his wife of 40 years have two children, Penni and George, II.

Shannon Miller

Shannon Miller remains the most decorated gymnast in American history. She is the only American to rank among the Top 10 All-Time gymnasts and is the only female athlete to be inducted into the US Olympic Hall of Fame – Twice! (Individual (2006) and Team (2008).

Shannon has won an astounding 59 International and 49 National competition medals. Over half of these have been gold. She is the only US gymnast to win 2 World All-Around Titles and she is the first American female to medal in the individual all-around of a non-boycotted Olympics. Her tally of five medals (2 silver, 3 bronze) at the 1992 Olympics was the most medals won by a US athlete in any sport. At the ’96 Games, she led the “Magnificent Seven” to the US Women’s first ever Team Gold and for the first time for any American gymnast, she captured Gold on the Balance Beam. She is the first American gymnast to win an individual gold medal at a fully-attended Summer Games and cemented her place as the most accomplished gymnast, male or female, in U.S. Olympic history.

After retiring from Olympic competition, Shannon received her undergraduate degrees in marketing and entrepreneurship and her law degree from Boston College. She then moved from Olympic athlete to advocate for the health and wellness of women and children. Shannon launched her company, Shannon Miller Lifestyle: Health and Fitness for Women, along with her series of fitness books, cookbooks and fitness DVD’s in July, 2010. In 2011. She also launched the Shannon Miller Walk-Fit program: a free online tracking and incentive program targeted to the Jacksonville community. She continues to travel the country as a highly sought after motivational speaker and advocate for the health and wellness of women and children. Shannon strives to empower women to make their health a priority through education and awareness.

In January of 2011, Shannon was diagnosed with a malignant germ cell tumor, a form of ovarian cancer. She had the baseball sized tumor removed successfully and followed up with 9 weeks of chemotherapy for this rare germ cell malignancy. Shannon has remained open and public about her diagnosis and treatment through the media, her blog “My Journey” and a free eBook entitled Competing with Cancer. Shannon is currently cancer free and continues to be a strong advocate for early detection.

Shannon is the host of Health & Wellness Channel’s Wish List with Shannon Miller where she travels the country granting wishes to those with life threatening medical conditions. In addition, Shannon hosts her weekly talk radio show dedicated to women’s health and fitness on WOKV-JAX. Shannon worked as an expert analyst with Yahoo! Sports and continues to remain involved with the sport of gymnastics as a commentator and analyst.

Ed Schauder

Ed Schauder has more than 25 years of experience handling complex corporate and finance transactions. Ed has maintained a sophisticated corporate and finance practice, advising clients in mergers and acquisitions, venture capital, public and private debt and equity offerings, leverage buyouts, financings, SEC compliance and general corporate planning.

Throughout his career, Ed has also been intimately involved in both the legal and business side of the sports and entertainment industries, having conceived and implemented a unique concept in sports marketing. By forming incorporated entities made up of members of championship sports teams or professional athletes linked together by similar accomplishments, Ed created programs to protect and market their intellectual property. From initial contact with the athletes to obtaining licensing rights, corporate sponsorships, endorsements, autograph memorabilia deals and appearances, Ed has represented some of sports history’s most beloved and storied teams, including the 1969 Mets, 1977 Yankees, 1972 Miami Dolphins, 1980 United States Olympic Hockey Team, and 1986 Giants. He also has represented the National Basketball Retired Players Association and the 2011 World Police and Fire Games. In 1990 he co-founded the Negro League Baseball Players Association. Ed is considered an expert in sports licensing and has negotiated literally hundreds of athlete appearance, endorsement, sponsorship and licensing agreements through the years. Those he has represented include: Larry Bird, Walt Frazier, Pete Rose, Yogi Berra, Goose Gossage, Lawrence Taylor, Bill Walton, Gayle Sayers, Tom Seaver, Ron Guidry, Rod Gilbert, Mariano Rivera, Torii Hunter, David Wright, Curtis Granderson, Alex Rodriguez and Mark Messier.

Ed has appeared on “Good Morning America” and numerous sports cable network shows and has been a frequent guest on WFAN Radio. He has been featured and quoted in numerous sports industry periodicals and national newspapers and magazines. Ed is also on the editorial board and is a frequent contributor to Professional Sports and the Law, a periodical that is distributed to General Counsel of major sports leagues and their franchises and the Sports Litigation Alert. He is also a member of the New York City Bar Association and the Sports Lawyers Association. Ed is a graduate of Columbia University Law School.

Reggie Howard

Reggie Howard is President and Executive Director of the United Athletes Foundation. After a life-altering injury during his senior season as a collegiate football player, Reggie persevered and reached his goal of becoming an NFL player, spending five seasons with the Carolina Panthers and two seasons with the Miami Dolphins. He is a strong advocate of community service, having worked with the United Way, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, United Negro College Fund, Young Family YMCA, St. Jude Hospital and the Boys and Girls Club. Reggie is also the founder of his own initiative, the Reggie Howard Foundation, whose mission is to build self-esteem among children, teach them the value of setting goals, and give kids today a better chance at becoming the leaders of tomorrow. Reggie is a graduate of the University of Memphis where he earned a degree in Marketing/Management and achieved the “Outstanding Young Alumni Award”. He has participated in the Stanford University Entrepreneurship Program, Kellogg University Business Internship Program, Wachovia Wealth Management Internship Program and High School Coaching Internship Program. More than 100 professional athletes are associated with the UAF, including NFL, NBA, MLB, WNBA and professional boxing.

Jim Camp

Jim Camp is the leading global expert on negotiations. Over the last 25 years, he has trained and coached over 100,000 people to negotiate better, more profitable agreements in more than 500 multinational organizations. Jim is the best-selling author of two negotiation books, Start with No® and No: the Only System of Negotiation You Need for Work and Home. He is also the author of the Nightingale-Conant Audio Program, The Power of NO. Jim is founder and CEO of the Camp Negotiation Institute and inventor of the Camp Systems of Negotiation, including Camp Negotiation Management, Self-Management and Project Management systems. Camp negotiation training is not compromise-based. It is the only system of its kind that teaches students how to recognize, neutralize and overcome predatory negotiation tactics that result in poor outcomes. Hundreds of organizations, including numerous Fortune 500 companies and the FBI Hostage Crisis Negotiation Training Unit have used his training system with astonishing results.  Jim’s unique approach to negotiation training has been featured on CNN, CNBC, numerous radio shows, and in The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, Inc., Cosmopolitan, San Francisco Chronicle, The Columbus Dispatch, The Christian Science Monitor, and San Jose Mercury News. A frequent conference keynote speaker, Jim has also lectured on negotiation at many prestigious graduate schools in the USA and has taught his training methods in nine countries on three continents. Jim served his country for seven years as a Vietnam Veteran and Air Force pilot. He holds a degree from Ohio State University in Education, Biological Sciences, and Health and Physical Education.

Chris Nowinski

Chris Nowinski is a Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine and the Co-Founder and CEO of the Sports Legacy Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to solve the sports concussion crisis. A former All-Ivy Harvard football player and WWE professional wrestler, he was forced to retire from a series of concussions in 2003. His challenging recovery from post-concussion syndrome led him to write the book Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis, published in 2006, in an effort to educate parents, coaches, and children about this previously hidden public health issue. The book inspired a documentary Head Games the Film, directed by Steve James of Hoop Dreams fame, scheduled for a September 2012 release. Chris and his team’s research has been featured in print outlets, including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine, and ESPN the Magazine. He has been featured on 60 Minutes, ESPN, ABC Nightline, CNN, Fox, TSN, NPR, and more. His profile in May 2007 by HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel won the Emmy for Sports Journalism, a second episode aired in January of 2010, and a third in August of 2010. Chris serves on the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) Mackey/White TBI Committee and the Ivy League Concussion Committee, as well as on the board of directors of the Brain Injury Association of America. He was a finalist for Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year in 2010, and was named a 2011 Eisenhower Fellow. Chris is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience at Boston University School of Medicine.

Bob Paff

Bob Paff is a nationally known communications expert, motivational speaker, business leader and seasoned media professional. His message of inspiration, motivation and empowerment has reached a diverse list of prominent institutions such as Johns Hopkins University Hospital, PNC Bank and the AXA Financial Group, including sharing the stage with New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

As the son of a factory worker and a legal secretary Bob learned the value of hard work and initiative as a boy setting up pins in a basement of a church bowling alley for three dollars a night. It was in these humble roots where Bob embraced the simple but powerful words of Abraham Lincoln who said “Whatever you are, be a good one”.

Bob’s natural and genuine ability to motivate and inspire others comes from his thirty plus years of earned life experiences as an entrepreneur, business owner, caring father of six and involvement in  numerous charities and organizations such as Baltimore Orioles All-Star Brian Robert’s fundraising bash supporting the University of Maryland’s Children hospital and Best Buddies Maryland supporting those with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Whether empowering Fortune 500 Companies or sharing his time and talent with entrepreneurs, local charities and inner city initiatives, Bob’s message is always on point and well received. Bob continues to reach out to help others achieve success and build relationships to strengthen us all.

Kevin Dahl

Kevin Dahl is Co-Founder, President & CEO of NexGoal. In this role, Kevin is responsible for the operations of the company and he oversees new business development, marketing, financial management, sales and client relationships. As a co- founder of NexGoal, Kevin is the chief steward of company culture, and vision of the company.  Kevin’s goal and vision with NexGoal is to give former athletes a place to turn for career transition guidance and job placements.

Before transitioning into business, Kevin was a professional hockey player in which his athletic career spanned time spent in the NHL, IHL, AHL, ECHL, and three years with the German Elite Team in Nurnberg Germany. In the 1992 Winter Olympics, Kevin was on the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team that won a Silver Medal.

Kevin grew up in Thunder Bay, Ontario and made his way through junior hockey to receive a full scholarship from Bowling Green State University. Kevin graduated from BGSU with a Bachelor of Science in Education. Kevin now serves on the Bowling Green State University  Hockey Alumni Board, and the Bowling Green State University Falcon Athletic Alumni Committee.

Throughout Kevin’s professional life he has been a great supporter of charitable causes. He has helped raise funds for the American Meningitis Society and he was community spokesperson for the Calgary Flames Hockey Team of the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Calgary Vocational Services Annual Golf Tournament. Kevin was also the Founder and Chairman of Get Fed by the Wolves and Get Fed by the Tigers charity dinners.

Yanik Silver

Yanik Silver is a serial entrepreneur who has built multiple successful online businesses even though he still considers himself a “techno dunce.” He has successfully bootstrapped 8 different product and service ideas hitting the million-dollar sales mark from scratch without funding, taking on debt or even having a real business plan.

Yanik’s story and businesses have been featured in Business 2.0, Fox Business News, TIME.com, USA Today, SmartMoney.com, MSN Money, Conde Naste’s Portfolio.com, Entrepreneur.com, WIRED magazine, WORTH.com, The Boston Globe, Denver Business Journal, and many others. He is the author of several best-selling marketing books and tools including “Moonlighting on the Internet,” Instant Sales Letters® & “34 Rules for Maverick Entrepreneurs”. Yanik is also the founder of the Underground Online Seminar® and Maverick1000, a private group of game-changing entrepreneurs, out to change the way business is played.

As a self-described “adventure junkie,” Yanik has led ultra successful entrepreneurs on unique experiences such as HALO skydiving, exotic car rallies, Zero-Gravity flights and Baja racing with business icons such as Sir Richard Branson and John Paul DeJoria.

Jean S. Fugett Jr, Esq.

Jean Fugett Jr. Esq. is an athlete, journalist, speaker, attorney, and businessman. After graduating from Cardinal Gibbons High School, where he was the first African American to win Baltimore Catholic Athlete of the Year Award, Jean attended Amherst College. At Amherst, Jean was a star on and off the field. He was a two sport All-American athlete.Off the field, he was executive editor of the Amherst Student weekly newspaper. After graduating from Amherst with honors, Jean was admitted to Columbia Law School. He was also on the waiting list at Harvard Law School.

Meanwhile, Jean went to training camp with the Dallas Cowboys. Having been drafted with the last pick of the 13th round, Jean learned the playbook in two days and, to his own surprise, he made the team. At the end of his fourth and final season with the Cowboys, Jean started in Super Bowl X. Still aspiring to become a lawyer, and with limited options for night school in Dallas, Jean signed with the Washington Redskins as one of the first modern day free agents. He went from being the lowest paid starting tight end in the NFL to the highest paid. Jean was also able to work for The Washington Post in the off season. Later, he would appear on CBS affiliate Channel 9 as a weekend anchor along with Frank Herzog on the show Redskins Sidelines. He completed law school by attending George Washington University at night.

With his playing days behind him, Jean continued to work for The Washington Post and he entered the television booth as a color commentator with Dan Dierdorf for the NFL on CBS show. Jean then helped his brother Reginald F. Lewis found TLC Group in 1983. He later served as Director and Vice-Chair of the McCall Pattern Company Management Committee, as founding partner of a Baltimore law firm, and as a partner with Fanfone in Europe. After the death of his brother in 1993, Jean assumed the helm of TLC Beatrice International Foods, the largest black-owned and black managed business in the world at the time. At its peak, TLC Beatrice had $2.2 billion in sales and was number 512 on Fortune magazine’s list of 1,000 largest companies.

Jean is the past president of the Retired Players Steering Committee of the NFL Players Association and he serves as Chancellor for the Maryland Chapter of the Son’s of the American Revolution. A sought after motivational speaker, who is also diabetic, he has served on the Leadership Council for the American Diabetes Association Maryland Chapter. He continues to practice law with his firm, Fugett and Associates, where he is legal counsel and advisor to a variety of businesses and not-for-profits.  Today, Jean pursues business opportunities with his son Russell, with whom he co-founded The Fugett Sports Group which raises capital for investments in sports related ventures.