Executive

An executive is someone who holds a senior position either in a team's front-office or in a league office. Nowadays, an executive is normally designated by a title such as "President" or "Vice-President", but in the past a title such as "Secretary" designated a senior executive position.

Many executives are former players, but others come from the ownership side, or have qualifications in business administration. This used to be limited to those dealing with financial matters, but it became a trend in the late 1990s to hire General Managers out of business schools, displacing former players, and many of these rose to executive positions. This trend started to reverse in the 2020s, when teams began looking for executives who combined both backgrounds. In particular, players who had come through universities renowned for their strong academic standards like Sam Fuld or Chris Young became highly sought-after due to this rare combination of skills.

The Executive of the Year and the Minor League Executive of the Year awards recognize excellence in this field of work.