Sunday, August 11, 2013

Where's Bill Neukom?

After the 2008 season, the SF Giants made their first significant leadership in the front office since the original core group purchased the club from Bob Lurie. They named one of their minority owners, William "Bill" Neukom as the club's managing general partner, taking over for Peter Magowan. Magowan was the driving force in saving the club from moving to Tampa and organizing an ownership group to purchase it and to build AT&T Park in the Mission Bay district.

In Neukom's inaugural season at the helm, the Giants captured their first World Championship in San Francisco. In his first season, Neukom instituted "The Giants' Way" handbook to set the footprint on how the organization would conduct themselves going forward, however, that was lost on the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee is the group of Giants owners that have a stake in the club. It's been well known that they prefer to limit the purse strings of the general managing partner and the general manager (Brian Sabean). When Neukom increased the payroll after the 2010 World Series win, the Executive Committee was unhappy that the windfall of revenue was being diverted to player payroll and essentially shoved Neukom out of his role and his share of ownership with the club. They soon named Larry Baer to take over as the managing general partner since they knew they could have more control with Baer than Neukom.

Since his departure from the club, Neukom has been working diligently with his foundation, World Justice Project, and has served as a Lecturer at Stanford Law School. He was previously a partner with AmLaw 100 law firm, K&L Gates, but he is no longer listed in the attorney directory. When fans reflect on the recent World Championship wins with the club, they should look first at Bill Neukom and the footprint he established to bring success to the club.

William "Bill" Neukom
SF Giants Managing General Partner (2008-2011)



William "Bill" Neukom Autographed Baseball

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