In addition to serving as Coordinator for the Sport Studies Leisure Academic Unit, Dr. Irwin is the Director of the Bureau of Sport and Leisure Commerce at the University of Memphis. As the Bureau's director, Dr. Irwin has been responsible for managing commissioned projects conducted on behalf of local organizations such as the Memphis Interscholastic Athletic Association, Memphis Grizzlies, FedEx St. Jude Golf Classic, FedEx Sports & Event Marketing, and Memphis AAA Baseball as well as national sponsors such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association and Women's Basketball Association. The Bureau currently serves as the Business Office for the Sport Marketing Association (SMA).

Dr. Irwin has provided marketing consultation to a variety of sport properties including the San Antonio Sports Foundation, San Jose Sports Authority, Houston 2012 Olympic Foundation, Major League Baseball, the Ladies Professional Golf Association, Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavs, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Coyotes, Pittsburgh Pirates, Streetball USA and Indiana Pacers. In addition to his academic responsibilities Dr. Irwin was the Director of Marketing and Sales for the AXA/Equitable Liberty Bowl for two years while also serving as a member of the Memphis/Shelby County Sport Authority Board of Advisors as well as the North American Society of Sport Management Executive Council.

Jim Kahler has been the executive director of the sports business specialization in the W. P. Carey MBA and a lecturer in the department of marketing since 2002. His teaching interests include sports business marketing, customer relationship management in sports, sports sponsorship activities, recruiting and retaining top performers, economic impact of sports events, and organizational structures for sports organizations.

Kahler came to the W. P. Carey School from the Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA) and Rockers (WNBA), where he was senior vice president of sales and marketing. He was named to that position in November 1991 and was responsible for ticket, corporate and broadcast sales, as well as marketing and public relations for the Cavs / Gund Arena Company. During these years his responsibilities included the development of MAC Properties and Gund Sports Marketing, two subsidiaries of the organization that focused on collegiate sports marketing and sponsorship sales for the Mid-American Conference, Miami University and Bowling Green State University.

Previously Kahler was director of marketing for the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati, director of marketing for the St. Louis Arena, and vice president of sales and marketing for SRO/PACE in Chicago.

Kahler received a B.A. in Business Administration from Xavier University in 1980 and a master’s degree in sports administration from Ohio University . He was honored in 1994 with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Ohio University Sports Administration Program. This award has been given annually since 1982 and is the program’s highest honor. He has remained actively involved with Ohio University as a guest lecturer, an alumni advisory board member, and is currently the chairman of the Ohio University Sports Administration Host Program. This program was designed to build a bridge between sports administration alumni and Ohio University ’s development team.

Kahler is a member of the board of trustees at St. Edward High School, a member of the steering committee for the National Sports Forum and Vice President of Industry Relations for the Sports Marketing Association. He was also recently named to the editorial board of The Migala Report, a world wide publication providing best practices to the sports business industry. He also served a three-year term (1997–2000) on the NBA Marketing Advisory Committee. Kahler also taught a class at Cleveland State University , guest-lectured at John Carroll University and served on the editorial review board for Sports Marketing Quarterly.

Kahler served on the ASU women’s basketball marketing committee (2002-2003), advised the Fiesta Bowl economic impact study team (2002-2003), and participated in the economic impact study for the Phoenix Open (2002-2003).

Jim and his wife, Katie, have four children - Peter, Meaghan, Jimmy and Caitlin.

Dr. Branch has been teaching for the past sixteen years in the graduate and undergraduate Sport Management Program at West Virginia University. He served as the Program’s Coordinator for eight of those years. In that capacity, he was responsible for internship and curricula development, as well as administrative duties within the Program.

In 1992, Dr. Branch developed the Sport Marketing Quarterly (SMQ), a professional sport marketing journal published four times per year. He served as Editor for this prestigious and internationally acclaimed professional journal, which is now read in 25 countries, until 1995. It remains the only publication of its kind in the world.

Dr. Branch was selected in 1994 as one of 3 charter members of the NASSM/NASPE Sport Management Council (SMC), a national distinction. The SMC’s charge is to set the future agenda for Sport Management as an academic discipline. Also in 1994, he was selected to serve a 3-year appointment as a member of the Sport Management Program Review Council, which is charged with evaluating undergraduate and graduate program’s curricula relative to criteria established for the discipline’s Sport Management Program Standards and Review Protocol process.

Dr. Branch has contributed significantly to the fields of sport management and marketing through his extensive publication and conference participation. He served nationally as the Sport Management Council’s Program Planner for the 1996 AAHPERD National Convention held in Atlanta , GA. A former basketball and baseball player at UNC-Chapel Hill, High Volume Marketing Executive with the Xerox Corporation, and Vice President of Marketing with the IHL’s Indianapolis Ice (formerly Checkers) Hockey Club, Dr. Branch brings a unique, and often referred to as the ideal, background of sport, business, and academics to the field of sport management and marketing.

He was appointed in 1996 by WVU President David C. Hardesty to assume a very prestigious position as one of seven Resident Faculty Leaders (RFLs), part of the President’s Operation Jump-Start initiative in the freshmen residence halls.

After serving four years as a RFL, Dr. Branch returned to the Sport Management Program full-time in 2001 and resumed his position as Program Coordinator.

Dr. Branch is married. He and his wife Jeannine have three (step) children and three grandchildren.

Larry McCarthy was born in Cork, Ireland. He holds Ph.D. in Sport Management from The Ohio State University. He teaches in the Department of Management at the W. Paul Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University where he is attached to the Center for Sport Management. Previously, he was the Graduate Sport Management Program coordinator in the Department of Recreation & Sport Management at Georgia Southern University. He holds an M.A. in Sport and Fitness Management from New York University and a B.Ed. in Physical Education and Social and Environmental Studies from the National University of Ireland. He is a Faculty Fellow of the Institute of International Business.

His research interests focus on the activities of professional sport franchises, cross cultural studies and on sport in Ireland . He has published research articles in national and international journals and has presented his work at regional, national and international conferences. He co-authored, with Professors Richard Irwin and Bill Sutton, the text Sport Promotion and Sales Management. He was appointed by The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games as an Olympic Envoy to the Olympic Council of Ireland for the Centennial Olympic Games. He is secretary/treasurer of the Sport Marketing Association. He is married to Barbara and they have two children, Conor and Shane.