MICHAEL WHITEHEAD
Senior Vice President, Team Finance
National Basketball Association
As Senior Vice President of Team Finance for the National Basketball Association, Michael Whitehead manages a team of professionals who report and analyze the consolidated leaguewide enterprise (comprising the league and all 30 teams) and provide consultation and guidance to team finance staffs and team management.
Whitehead has played an important role in a number of key business initiatives, assisting with the financial analysis underpinning the NBA’s latest collective bargaining agreement and revenue sharing plans, management of the day-to-day operations of the New Orleans Hornets while the team was under league ownership, and implementing a new leaguewide quarterly reporting process. Additionally in 2009, Whitehead helped develop the financial and business model for Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS).
Prior to joining the NBA in 2009, Whitehead spent five years running day-to-day business aspects of a direct marketing agency in New York City. From 1998 to 2004, he acted as the CFO for Major League Soccer, developing the league’s current financial model and guiding the formation of the properties arm, Soccer United Marketing. He launched his career with a three-year stint as a senior accountant at Ernst & Young.
A certified public accountant, Whitehead holds a bachelor’s degree from Manhattan College. He lives in Park Ridge, N.J. with his wife and daughter.
4/2012