Senior Vice President, Retail Development
National Basketball Association
As Senior Vice President of Retail Development at the National Basketball Association, Chris Brennan manages marketing and promotions at all of the league’s retail operations outside of the NBA Store and NBAstore.com.

Brennan’s focus on creating innovative and creative marketing and promotional programs has resulted in rapid extensions of the NBA brand beyond its traditional staple of jersey sales. He oversees a brand-management department that has grown NBA-branded products into a national brand at key retailers. The group’s goal, bolstered by a line of NBA-branded footwear, is to double the size of Brand NBA by 2011.

In recent efforts to consolidate company assets and concentrate resources on larger platforms, Brennan has been integral to the strategic development of many of the NBA’s most significant retail partnerships. This has included traditional sporting goods outlets – Champs Sports, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Sports Authority, JCPenney, and Foot Locker – and some of the nation’s most prominent mass retailers, including Wal-Mart, Kmart, Toys “R” Us, Target, and 7-Eleven.

Prior to his promotion to Senior Vice President in October 2008, Brennan was Vice President of the league’s Global Merchandising Group, where he was responsible for managing the NBA’s Retail Marketing & Business Development Group, and licensing departments in mass apparel and home furnishings. Brennan also held Senior Director and Director positions at the league from 1998 to 2004.

From 1989 to 1998, Brennan worked for Foot Locker’s athletic footwear and apparel divisions in a variety of positions, including Buyer. Here, he conceptualized and created newborn, infant, and toddler segments; produced business plans and placed buys for special events, including MLB All-Star, the NCAA Final Four and the Super Bowl; played an integral role in building branded/licensed outerwear program across the chain’s 1,400 stores; and helped to initiate the outdoor/casual footwear trend by stoking the development of Timberland, Nike, Reebok, adidas, and Converse.

A 1988 graduate of the State University of New York at Albany with a bachelor’s degree in communications, Brennan also earned an M.B.A. from St. John’s University in 1992.

Brennan lives in Westfield, N.J. with his wife Michelle, and two children, Jonathan and Alexandra.

1/2012