Donald A. Smiley is the President and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especial ...

Summerfest Summerfest is an annual music festival held in downtown Milwaukee, Wisconsin. First held in 1968, Summerfest is located at Henry Maier Festival Park, adjacent to Lake Michigan and Milwaukee's central business district. Summerfest attracts app ...

and former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

executive. He served as president of the

Florida Marlins The Miami Marlins are an American professional baseball team based in Miami. The Marlins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East division. The club's home ballpark is LoanDepot Park. The fran ...

from 1994 to 1998, taking over after the death of

Carl Barger Carl F. Barger (August 18, 1930 – December 9, 1992) was a Pittsburgh attorney and baseball executive. Biography Barger became the President of the Pittsburgh Pirates Major League Baseball team, serving from 1987 through the beginning of 1991. ...

. He is a graduate of

University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh (UW Oshkosh or UW Osh) is a public university in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It is part of the University of Wisconsin System and offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree programs to nearly 14,000 students e ...

Career

After graduating from college, Smiley worked at

WFRV-TV WFRV-TV (channel 5) is a television station in Green Bay, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios on East Mason Street in Green Bay, and its transmitter is located north of Mor ...

in Green Bay first as a cameraman and then as an assignment reporter. He went on to work as district sales manager for Hoffmaster Paper Company in Oshkosh from 1979 until 1982 when he left to become the director of marketing for the Honda Classic PGA Tournament in Florida in 1982.

Florida Marlins

In 1991, Smiley became the vice president and chief spokesman for South Florida Big League Baseball during which he helped secure the expansion Florida Marlins. He served as president of the Marlins from 1994 to 2000. The owner of the Florida Marlins at the time,

Wayne Huizenga Harry Wayne Huizenga Sr. (; December 29, 1937 – March 22, 2018) was an American businessman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He founded AutoNation and Waste Management Inc., and was the owner or co-owner of Blockbuster Video, the Miami ...

, tried to arrange a sale of the Marlins to Smiley for $169 million in 1997.

Summerfest

Smiley was hired in 2004 as the CEO of Summerfest, an annual music festival held at the

Henry Maier Festival Park Henry Maier Festival Park is a 75-acre festival park located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on the shore Lake Michigan and is the site of the annual Summerfest musical festival and the home of the American Family Insurance Amphitheater. History Be ...

along the lakefront in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. In 2012, Smiley's compensation as Summerfest CEO was $886,185 according to Milwaukee World Festival.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smiley, Don Living people Florida Marlins executives Major League Baseball team presidents University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh alumni 1955 births