Bears name Kevin Warren as new team President and CEO

The Bears on Thursday named Kevin Warren as their new group President and CEO.

Warren, 59, boasts 21 years of revel in as an NFL government with the St. Louis Rams (1997-2000), Detroit Lions (2001-03) and Minnesota Vikings (2005-19) and maximum lately served as Commissioner of the Big Ten Conference (2020-23).

Warren replaces Ted Phillips, who’s retiring after forty seasons with the Bears, which include the final 23 as President and CEO. Warren will become the 5th president withinside the franchise`s 103-yr history—following George S. Halas, George “Mugs” Halas Jr., Michael McCaskey and Phillips—the primary Black president in Bears annals and the primary President and CEO employed from outdoor the business enterprise.

“Kevin is a person of integrity, appreciate and excellence, all of which can be important center values of the Chicago Bears, and we welcome his attitude and numerous idea to steer this storied business enterprise,” stated Bears Chairman George H. McCaskey. “He is a tested chief who has oftentimes stepped outdoor of his consolation sector to project popularity quo for unconventional increase and prosperity. In this function, Warren will serve withinside the number one management role of the franchise to assist convey the following Super Bowl championship trophy domestic to Bears fans.”

“Kevin goes to be a remarkable useful resource and I am excited to get commenced with him,” stated wellknown supervisor Ryan Poles. “In my time spent with him for the duration of the interview process, it quick have become obvious his resumé and enterprise acumen might be a effective asset to supporting enhance our business enterprise and in the long run attain our purpose to be a championship business enterprise.”

Warren will start professional membership enterprise withinside the spring.

“I am venerated and apprehend the obligation bestowed upon me to steer the Chicago Bears for the duration of this thrilling and pivotal time for the franchise,” Warren stated. “I sit up for constructing at the wealthy lifestyle that commenced with George Halas and connecting with the specific and colourful fanbase in Chicago. I be a part of the Chicago Bears with gratitude and pressure to perform and construct upon the legacy and spirit of this founding franchise and my predecessors. This is a franchise this is reputable in all of expert sports, and I am humbled to be decided on as the following President & CEO of the Chicago Bears. I genuinely thank Virginia McCaskey, George McCaskey, the McCaskey own circle of relatives, Ted Phillips and the hunt group, for the obligation and agree with positioned in me to steer the Chicago Bears and supply championships to Chicago.”

“It changed into critical to make sure the Bears had the proper chief in vicinity earlier than I retired,” Phillips stated. “Kevin will do an first rate activity of bringing the high-quality out of the awesome humans at Halas Hall and retain the evolution of our proud franchise.”

Warren, who’s an attorney, to start with entered the NFL with the Rams, serving as vp of participant programs/soccer criminal recommend from 1997-2000 earlier than being promoted to vp of soccer administration. He earned a Super Bowl ring whilst the Rams defeated the Tennessee Titans in Super Bowl XXXIV.

Warren then joined the Lions as senior vp of enterprise operations and wellknown recommend. He left Detroit in 2003 to go back to his native land of Phoenix to paintings for the worldwide regulation organization Greenberg Traurig. In that function, he represented the Wilf own circle of relatives and Minnesota Vikings possession institution in what have become a successful $six hundred million deal to buy the franchise.

Wilf later employed Warren to paintings for the Vikings, a tenure that lasted extra than decades. He served as government vp of criminal affairs and leader administrative officer from 2005-14 and leader working officer (COO) from 2015-19. In Minnesota, Warren changed into the NFL`s maximum rating Black enterprise government and the primary Black COO in league history.

As COO, Warren performed an crucial function in all enterprise, financial, criminal and operational factors associated with U.S. Bank Stadium. He changed into worried withinside the design, construction, enterprise, criminal and operational additives of the brand new stadium, which opened in 2016 and hosted Super Bowl XXLI on Feb. 4, 2018.

Warren additionally performed an instrumental function withinside the design, improvement and making plans of Twin Cities Orthopedics Performance Center, the Vikings headquarters in Eagan, Minn. Under his management, the Vikings restructured their business enterprise, with an emphasis on broadening the government group and selling girls to key government positions.

In 2013, Warren changed into named a member of the NFL Committee on Workplace Diversity, that is devoted to selling variety at each stage withinside the league. During Super Bowl LI festivities in Houston in 2017, he changed into venerated with the Texas Southern University Pioneer Award, spotting his groundbreaking function as an NFL government and his dedication to championing variety.

In 2020, Warren have become the 6th Big Ten Commissioner in convention history.

In that function, he secured groundbreaking media rights agreements with CBS, NBC and FOX and the streaming platform, Peacock, which can be the maximum complete and profitable in all of university sports.

In 2022, Warren shaped the Big Ten Foundation to in addition the dedication of the convention to serve its member institutions` groups thru charitable giving and volunteerism. The business enterprise is devoted to empowering younger humans with the academic sources and gear they want to construct accountable and balanced lifestyles.

This beyond summer, Warren introduced that the Big Ten had voted unanimously to confess UCLA and USC into the convention powerful Aug. 2, 2024. The enlargement will growth the footprint of the Big Ten throughout the country`s 3 biggest media markets in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.

This beyond July, Warren led a delegation of Big Ten student-athletes and directors to Selma and Montgomery, Ala., for an revel in entitled: Big Life Series: Selma to Montgomery. The pilgrimage to one of the key facilities of the civil rights motion changed into highlighted through a march throughout the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, that is the web website online of the 1965 Bloody Sunday attack.

To honor George Taliaferro—an Indiana University product who have become the primary Black participant to be drafted through an NFL group whilst the Bears decided on him in 1949—Warren created the George and Viola Taliaferro Fellowship. The fellowship affords people who’ve now no longer traditionally had get right of entry to to