{"id":532920,"date":"2026-03-31T14:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/532920\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T14:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T14:32:07","slug":"florida-panthers-hire-amazon-robotaxi-exec-michael-white-to-lead-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/532920\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Panthers hire Amazon robotaxi exec Michael White to lead business"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">The Florida Panthers have hired Michael White from Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox as their new president of business operations. White, who previously spent 11 years at Disney, brings a background in consumer technology and guest experience to a front office in transition following several key departures. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">After serving as Zoox\u2019s chief product officer for the past two-and-a-half years, White started in his new role Monday with the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. In addition to overseeing the franchise\u2019s day-to-day operations, he will lead business efforts across the Panthers\u2019 four operated facilities: Amerant Bank Arena, Baptist Health IcePlex, Panthers IceDen and War Memorial Auditorium. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">White takes over a Panthers front office that has experienced an executive exodus since the team won its second straight title last June. He replaces Matt Caldwell, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/08\/27\/panthers-president-matt-caldwell-leaving-to-become-twolves-ceo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sportsbusinessjournal.com\/Articles\/2025\/08\/27\/panthers-president-matt-caldwell-leaving-to-become-twolves-ceo\/\">left the organization last summer<\/a> to become CEO of the T\u2019Wolves and Lynx. Other high-level departures in recent months include CRO Shawn Thornton (to the Hawks), COO Bryce Hollweg (to janitorial services company CJS Global), CFO James Suh (to the Spurs) and CRO Mark Zarthar, who has yet to take a new role. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Speaking to Sports Business Journal on his first day, White said he does not have a defined mandate from ownership and is beginning with an evaluation of the organization, focusing on opportunities to \u201camplify and really enhance\u201d the fan experience inside and outside the arena. He added that he has yet to identify which positions he will prioritize as he builds out his leadership team. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to evaluating and meeting with our internal talent,\u201d White said. \u201cI met with the team five hours ago &#8212; all 300 people in the front office. It\u2019s really invigorating to see the culture they\u2019ve created here, while also identifying growth and aggressively pursuing the best talent to complement it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">During his tenure at Disney, White held roles across parks, media, consumer products and retail, contributing to the company\u2019s digital and direct-to-consumer strategy, including ESPN+, ESPN Digital and fantasy sports. He also supported the NBA\u2019s return-to-play operations at ESPN Wide World of Sports. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Prior to Disney, White held roles at Apollo Education Group, parent company of the University of Phoenix, and Yahoo. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph sections-people-and-pop-culture \">Panthers Alternate Governor Michael Viola, son of majority owner Vincent Viola, led the search, with CAA Sports advising the franchise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Panthers have hired Michael White from Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox as their new president of business&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,5472,4,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-532920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-leadership","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116324279639370038","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=532920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}