HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – When pro teams win world championships, the players and coaches are often front and center.<\/p>\n
Yet, the victory is felt through an entire organization, and East Honolulu native Kurt Zwald has made some major league memories.<\/p>\n
Following 14 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, the Punahou grad recently joined the Seattle Mariners as the club\u2019s senior director of business strategy and analytics.<\/p>\n
His job title is long, but the purpose is simple \u2014 help teams make money.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s sort of this virtuous cycle in sports where the more revenue that you generate on the business side, the more you can put that into player payroll to build out your payroll, your farm system etcetera, the more you build out those elements on the field, you hopefully lead to more wins, ideally championships,\u201d Zwald said. \u201cMore wins and championships leads to more fan interest. More fan interest leads to more revenue and so on and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before working at T-Mobile and Fenway Parks, he got his start with Hawaii Winter Baseball in 2006, taking on a sales and marketing position where he got a ton of on-the-job training.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you work in the minor league level, you sort of have your job description on paper, and then there\u2019s also a bullet of other duties as assigned,\u201d Zwald said. \u201cYou\u2019re really doing it all, so I think that it certainly taught me to be flexible and versatile as far as of what you\u2019re doing on the job and really work with such a diverse group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following his time with Hawaii Winter Baseball, he pursued an MBA at Dartmouth before eventually joining the Red Sox front office.<\/p>\n
His first full season was in 2013 when they won it all, and he enjoyed another title run five years later.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe championships and the celebrations are nice, but really it\u2019s the people that you do it with,\u201d Zwald said. \u201cAll of my colleagues, my coworkers, my teammates, all those things, those are really what makes the memories of postseason runs and World Series championships and everything in between. Those are friends that I\u2019ll have for life and memories that you\u2019ll never forget.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zwald joined the Mariners in October \u2014 an exciting opportunity that allows him and his wife to be closer to their families back here in the islands.<\/p>\n
He wants his journey to help inspire others that even though Hawaii doesn\u2019t have a pro team, a career in pro sports is still possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf my role or my career or a conversation I might have with somebody in school in Hawaii can help them to see through their passion and a career in sports, that to me is incredibly fulfilling,\u201d Zwald said. \u201cIt\u2019s exciting for me to see more Hawaii people in the industry as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
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