Under new ownership, the Milwaukee Bucks made significant strides by building a young pool of talent on the court this season.
However, the organization also has quickly assembled an impressive pool of young talent off the court in the front office. Bucks principal owners Wes Edens, Marc Lasry and Jamie Dinan moved that front office to 18,000 square feet of space at Schlitz Park and grew the staff by 50 percent to more than 130 employees. The team added 40 new employees to its sales staff.
Team president Peter Feigin seems to be omnipresent and makes himself readily available to the business community and the media.
Among the young new executives who have made immediate impacts in the Bucks organization are vice president of communications Jake Suski, vice president of ticket sales and service Jamie Morningstar, senior vice president and chief revenue officer Theodore Loehrke and vice president of strategy and operations Alexander Lasry.
Of note, Suski has an impressive and long political resume. He previously served as spokesman for former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Utah Gov. and presidential candidate Jon Huntsman and Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.
Morningstar joined the Bucks after serving as vice president of service and retention at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where she managed the season ticket bases for the NBA’s New York Knicks, the NHL’s New York Rangers and WNBA’s New York Liberty.
Loehrke previously was senior vice president of team marketing and business operations for the NBA.
Alexander Lasry is the son of Marc Lasry. The younger Lasry has built an impressive resume of his own. After earning his master’s degree in business administration from New York University’s Stern School of Business, Alexander served in various capacities in the Obama White House and Goldman Sachs before following his father to Milwaukee.
Alexander recently created quite a ruckus on Twitter, where he posted a series of Tweets on the one-year anniversary of the day in March 2014, when he came with his father and Edens to Milwaukee for the first time to meet with then-Bucks owner Herb Kohl.
“This was my first trip to MKE. It was a cold, snowy March weekend & Sen. Kohl wanted to see if Marc/Wes would be good stewards of franchise,” Alexander wrote.
Alexander confided that the prospective owners met Kohl at the University Club and then had dinner at Carson’s Prime Steaks & Famous Barbecue in Milwaukee. Alexander later checked out the city’s “local bar scene” and ended the night at Potawatomi Casino.
The following night, Edens and the Lasrys attended their first Bucks game. They liked what they saw.
“My dad and Wes were very impressed with city and Sen. Kohl’s passion for WI, MKE and the Bucks family. We saw enormous potential,” Alexander wrote. “I moved here a few months later and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you Bucks fans, city of MKE and state of WI for making us feel so welcome.”
Steve Jagler is executive editor of BizTimes.
