Paul Joseph Dolan (born July 7, 1958 in

Chardon, Ohio Chardon is a city in and the county seat of Geauga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 5,242 at the 2020 census.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), ...

(MLB) team executive who is currently part-owner, chairman, 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 ...

(CEO) of the

Cleveland Guardians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

. Dolan is also the "control person" for the team.

Early life

Dolan was born and raised in the Cleveland, Ohio suburb of Chardon, as one of six children of

Larry Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boone ...

and Eva Dolan. Dolan attended

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

at the

Gilmour Academy Gilmour Academy is an independent, Catholic, coeducational, college-preparatory day and boarding school in the Cleveland suburb of Gates Mills, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1946 by the Brothers of Holy Cross, Gilmour Academy has three division ...

Gates Mills, Ohio Gates Mills is a village in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,270 at the 2010 census. Gates Mills is a suburb of Cleveland and was originally part of Mayfield Township. The village was named for Halsey Gates, the propri ...

, and upon graduation attended college at St. Lawrence University, and upon graduation went on to earn his Juris Doctor at

Notre Dame Law School Notre Dame Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Notre Dame. Established in 1869, it is the oldest continuously operating Catholic law school in the United States. ND Law is ranked 22nd among the nation's "Top 1 ...

in 1983.

Career

After graduating from law school, Dolan was hired as an attorney for his father's law firm (Thrasher, Dinsmore, and Dolan), eventually becoming a partner in 1992. In 2000,

Larry Dolan Lawrence J. Dolan (born February 8, 1931) is an American retired attorney and the principal owner of the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). Education Dolan attended St. Ignatius High School and got his law degree from Universit ...

purchased the

baseball team. Upon his father taking control of the team, Dolan was hired as a

vice president A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on ...

and

general counsel A general counsel, also known as chief counsel or chief legal officer (CLO), is the chief in-house lawyer for a company or a governmental department. In a company, the person holding the position typically reports directly to the CEO, and their ...

. In 2004, Dolan was promoted to team

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

, and in 2011 promoted again to chairman/ CEO. In 2013, Dolan was approved by the team owners of MLB as the "control person" of the Guardians; the Associated Press describes this new role as "controlling owner". This new designation means that Dolan oversees the day to day team operations, and is responsible for compliance with MLB rules and regulations. Though officially listed as Chairman/CEO by the team, Dolan is sometimes referred to as an owner of the Guardians, as the team is considered to be a family asset due to being purchased through various Dolan Family trusts.

Family

Dolan's son Peter was selected by the Guardians in the 33rd round of the

2014 MLB Draft The 2014 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft was held from June 5 through June 7, 2014, to assign amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The first two rounds were conducted on June 5, followed by rounds three through ten on June ...

as a

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

out of Gilmour Academy. His brother Matt is a state senator in Ohio, and his cousin

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguati ...

is owner of the New York Knicks of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

(NBA), and the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

(NHL).

Awards and honors

(as a member of the Indians/Guardians ownership and front office) *

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

champion (2016) * 6×

American League Central The American League Central is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. This division was formed in the realignment of 1994 by moving three teams from the American League West and two teams from the American League East. Its teams are all lo ...

division champion (2001, 2007, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022)

References

External links

Interview of Paul Dolan
conducted by Dan Coughlin at Cleveland Public Library on February 24, 2016.
audio only

Guardians official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dolan, Paul Cleveland Indians executives Living people 1958 births People from Chardon, Ohio Dolan family Major League Baseball team presidents American chief executives of professional sports organizations