Episode 13: Karlis Kezbers, Director, Business Intelligence & Ticket Strategy, Oklahoma City Thunder

Front Office Exchange

Welcome to Episode 13 of the Front Office Exchange podcast featuring Oklahoma City Thunder Director of Business Intelligence and Ticket Strategy, Karlis Kezbers. Before I introduce Karlis, I want to let everyone know that I'll be at the Momentum Sports Marketing Symposium next week in New York. I'll be there through the afternoon of the 9th - which is the first day of the conference - so if you're in town for the event, please send me a message on Twitter at @jakefehling or email me at [e-mail] - I'd love to say hello! Now, for this week's guest. I was introduced to Karlis by a mutual acquaintance with whom I worked closely several years ago at USA Baseball. That's been the great thing thus far with the podcast - getting to reconnect with old colleagues from the sports business industry and being introduced to new ones. I really enjoyed my conversation with Karlis, who was kind enough to talk to me the morning of the Thunder's opening night game against the 76ers. They won that game and have since won two more, so, so far so good with the Russell Westbrook solo act. Karlis tells his story about how, after graduating from the University of Oklahoma, he traveled west where he climbed the ticket sales ladder with the Phoenix Suns. Shortly thereafter, he landed what was essentially his dream job in the NBA at the time, when the new Oklahoma City Thunder brought him back to his hometown in 2008. Karlis talks about his transition from a typical sales role into one where he is now leading a team and focused more on the analytics behind the sale. He attributes rolling up his sleeves and relentlessly networking to his success, and he offers a few tips along those lines as well. Big thanks both to Karlis and to you for listening. For show notes, past episodes and more, please visit us at www.frontofficeexchange.com, on Facebook at Front Office Exchange and on Twitter at @frontofficeexch. Please also feel free to reach out to me directly at [e-mail] and on Twitter at @jakefehling. This and past episodes of Front Office Exchange are available on iTunes and SoundCloud, among other places, and I encourage you to subscribe, share episodes, rate them, add comments, and suggest ideas for future guests.