The College Football Hall of Fame, under construction in downtown Atlanta, completed its executive team by hiring five vice presidents with experience ranging from the Braves to Zoo Atlanta.
The hires signal that the Hall of Fame is gearing up for its scheduled August opening.
Mark Petersen was hired as vice president of finance and administration, Marcus Margerum as vice president of marketing and communications, Matt Lynch as vice president of fan experience, Shawn Teske as vice president of operations and infrastructure and Mike Bilbow as vice president of content and production.
Teske and Bilbow joined the Hall of Fame from jobs in college athletics. Teske was director of facilities and capital planning at Georgia Tech, while Bilbow was executive director of new media at Georgia for rights-holder IMG College.
Margerum most recently was vice president of marketing and sales for Zoo Atlanta. Lynch was director of guest services for the Braves. Petersen was senior finance manager at air-transport communications company SITA and earlier spent 16 years at Coca-Cola.
The new hires join president and CEO John Stephenson, executive vice president and chief operating officer John Christie and vice president of business development and sales Brad Olecki in the Hall of Fame’s leadership lineup.
The group will “ensure that our business objectives are met” and “provide Atlanta and all college football fans with a best-in-class attraction,” Stephenson said in a statement.
The National Football Foundation decided in 2009 to move the hall here from South Bend, Ind. The 94,000-square-foot, $66-million attraction is being built in a former Georgia World Congress Center parking lot on Marietta Street, near Centennial Olympic Park. Construction began in January 2013 after long delays.
“The team assembled in Atlanta to operate the College Football Hall of Fame is not only experienced, dedicated, and hard-working, but they are ambassadors for the greater message, which is that the good in the game is to be highlighted all the time,” National Football Foundation president and CEO Steve Hatchell said in a statement.
