Casper Named Suns President

THETA DELTA (Virginia Tech) — Brad Casper (Virginia Tech ’79) finds it ironic that he made a name for himself as a top-flight executive in the Land of the Rising Sun, and then solidified his success in the Valley of the Sun. So it seemed perfectly logical to him that his next career move would be to run the actual Suns.

With Rick Welts resigning as Suns President and CEO on September 9, the club announced that Casper would be named Suns President on Monday, while interim Suns President and former Executive VP & General Counsel Jason Rowley would be promoted to Suns Chief Operating Officer. Casper, a 25-year veteran of consumer businesses, most recently served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Henkel Consumer Goods, Inc., a $1.7 billion North American business based in Scottsdale, Ariz., which included the former Dial Corporation.

Before taking the helm at Dial, Casper rose to prominence as an executive in Japan with Proctor & Gamble. The youngest brand manager in the firm’s history, Casper took a little-known, struggling product in Pantene from a $50 million a year brand to one that currently earns about $4 billion a year in revenue.

A fan and former marketing partner of the Suns with Dial, Casper became immediately intrigued by the opening that Welts left vacant.

“First and foremost I’ve been a Suns fan since I arrived here six and a half years ago,” Casper said. “I was first just a fan, then we became a marketing partner, and then we actually became a marketing partner with the NBA through our Right Guard association.”

Claiming that nothing in his life has ever “engaged him” like the Suns, Casper said that he was teased by his family for always secretly wanting to run the Suns. He admitted reluctantly today, “They were right.”

Full article via nba.com
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