Kenneth L Shropshire

Kenneth L. Shropshire – CEO, Global Sport Institute, adidas Distinguished Professor of Global Sport, Arizona State University; Professor Emeritus, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Professor Shropshire is CEO of the Global Sport Institute and the adidas Distinguished Professor of Global Sport at Arizona State University. He recently closed out a thirty-year career as an endowed full professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was also Director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative, Professor of Africana Studies, and Academic Director of Wharton’s sports-focused executive education programs. He now holds the title of Wharton Professor Emeritus. As an author, his books include: Sport Matters: Leadership, Power, and the Quest for Respect in Sports; Negotiate Like the Pros: A Top Sports Negotiator’s Lessons for Making Deals, Building Relationships and Getting What You Want; and Being Sugar Ray: The Life of America’s Greatest Boxer and First Celebrity Athlete. Additional works include the foundational books In Black and White: Race and Sports in America; The Business of Sports; and The Business of Sports Agents. His twelfth book is The Mis-Education of the Student Athlete: How to Fix College Sports, which was published last year. He graduated from Stanford in 1977 with a degree in economics and Columbia Law School in 1980. Before beginning his career in the academy he practiced law in Los Angeles and was an executive with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee. He serves as a consultant to numerous sports entities and can be heard on his regular podcast, Why Sport Matters.