Paul Archey, who led the creation of the World Baseball Classic while heading international operations for Major League Baseball, will take the helm of JMI Sports’ new marketing partnership effort with the University of Kentucky.
Archey, a native of Greenup, Kentucky, will become president of JMI’s newly established UK Sports and Campus Marketing, as part of the 15-year, $210 million multimedia rights agreement announced between the university and JMI in June.
Under the partnership, Archey and his team will work as an extension of the university, according to a statement about Archey’s hire, and will be responsible for developing relationships with sponsors, fans, alumni and students through activities ranging from broadcasts to sponsorships. JMI Sports also plans to incorporate a “Total Campus Marketing” program, targeted at leveraging the value of the entire university — not just its athletic programs — as a nationally recognized brand.
“It feels wonderful to be coming home,” Archey said in the statement. “I had a terrific experience at Major League Baseball. I will greatly miss the relationships I developed during my time there. ... Now, I’m looking forward to putting that global experience to work for the benefit of UK and all my fellow Kentuckians for whom the university is so important.”
Under Archey’s leadership at MLB international, which began in 1999, MLB expanded its global reach, opening offices in Beijing, London, Sydney and Tokyo, and extended the organization’s global broadcast exposure to more than 200 countries. The World Baseball Classic, Archey’s signature initiative, attracted more than 800,000 spectators and 200 million television viewers worldwide in 2013.
Archey was named as one of Sports Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” and Baseball America’s “10 to Watch,” among other accolades.
Tom Stultz, JMI Sports president, called Archey a “worldwide industry leader, an innovator and entrepreneur with many significant and lasting successes.”
“His unique combination of experience and passion for UK athletics and his home state make him the perfect leader for UK Sports and Campus Marketing,” Stultz said in the release. “It also helps that he bleeds Kentucky Blue.”
In a 2010 interview with Sports Business Journal, Archey named UK basketball as one of his favorite teams, and listed his fantasy job as athletic director for the University of Kentucky.
Archey earned his bachelor’s degree in marketing and finance from Georgetown College and his master’s degree in sports management from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He currently lives in Darien, Connecticut, with his wife, Deena, and three children, Jake, Megan and Peter.