CFO & Sales Ops Dinner

Ryan Huzjak earned his MBA from DePaul University, Kellstadt Graduate School of Business with a Marketing Concentration in 2004. He started his career in sports marketing with the Chicago White Sox in 1999 as ticket sales intern. In 2002, Ryan accepted a position with the Chicago Bulls as Corporate Sponsorship Account Executive where he was responsible for selling sponsorships for the Bulls and the United Center. In 2004, Ryan joined the Chicago Bears where he served as Corporate Partnerships Manager for 2 years. In 2006, he was promoted to lead the corporate partnership sales team as the Director of Corporate Partnerships. Ryan successfully led the Bears sponsorship sales to dramatic annual growth and dynamic platform development while contributing broadly across the Bears business operation.

In 2013, the Pittsburgh Steelers called on him to join the franchise in a newly created, Director of Partnerships and Sales role. Ryan was initially asked to lead the growth and development of key revenue generating business lines including corporate partnership sales, corporate partnership activation and premium seating sales. In early 2015, he led the development of a new sales and marketing corporate structure. Ryan now serves as Vice President of Sales and Marketing where he oversees sales (sponsorship sales, sponsorship activation and premium seating sales) marketing (brand, event marketing, gameday marketing, youth marketing and alumni relations) and content (TV, radio, digital, print and editorial) functions for the franchise.

Bryan Stroh is responsible for all of the club’s legal affairs, including negotiating vendor and customer agreements, protecting the club’s intellectual property, counseling the club on employment and labor issues, and managing all outside litigation. He also handles the club’s player contract negotiations and salary arbitration cases and contributes to a variety of other matters within the club’s baseball operations department. He is credited with handling the negotiations for Andrew McCutchen’s six year, $51.5 million contract extension signed in March 2012, Charlie Morton’s three year, $21 million extension signed in December 2013, and Starling Marte’s six year, $31 million extension signed in March 2014.    

Prior to joining the Pirates, Bryan spent nine years at Katten Muchin Rosenman, LLP’s Chicago office as a Partner in the litigation department.  Bryan litigated a wide variety of commercial litigation matters in state and federal trial courts and handled multiple appeals in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.  Bryan also concentrated his practice on sports law, First Amendment and publisher issues, internal investigations, and white collar criminal defense.  In particular, Bryan represented a number of baseball clubs, including the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and the Oakland Athletics, as well as teams in other sports, such as the Chicago Bulls of the NBA, and the Chicago Fire and Philadelphia Union of MLS. Bryan received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his A.B. cum laude from Princeton University, where he majored in Politics. 

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