Sports Business Club Welcomes LPGA Commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan

Ryan Jahn ‘22

Lawrenceville’s Sports Business Club was pleased to welcome Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) Commissioner, Mollie Marcoux Samaan, to campus last week. Samaan shared stories about her career and important lessons she learned from working in the business side of sports. After graduating from Princeton University where she was an accomplished athlete, she came to Lawrenceville and was the Assistant Athletic Director and coach of the girls’ ice hockey and soccer teams. After Lawrenceville, Samaan went to work for Chelsea Piers Management, upon their opening in 1995, where she gained extensive experience in the sports business industry.

While she was not able to focus as much time on sponsorship sales as she would have liked, she described how working at Chelsea Piers fulfilled her passion for working in the sports industry and learned many useful skills such as networking and leadership.

After spending almost two decades with Chelsea Piers, Samaan took advantage of a new opportunity as the athletic director for Princeton University. Despite not having any prior experience working in college sports, she leveraged her leadership skills and strong work ethic to her advantage and was very successful. Earlier this year, Samaan was selected to be the commissioner of the LPGA. She stated that everything had come “full circle” as her current role now entails, among other things, securing sponsorships for the LPGA tours.

While talking in depth on the topic of sports business, Samaan explained what it means to be a supportive teammate and influential leader. Her collective experiences have yielded positive learning opportunities to develop leadership skills necessary to succeed in her field of work and for life in general. She mentioned that a great leader has “integrity, accountability, and passion.” Samaan explained how she began to embody these words while working in the sports industry, and relayed how Lawrentians should strive to become leaders in order to flourish not just in sports business, but in any career path they choose.

Photo credit: Rob Kim/Golf Digest

For additional information, please contact Lisa M. Gillard Hanson, director of Public Relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.