Edward Regis "Ed" Policy (born October 6, 1970) is an American football

executive Executive ( exe., exec., execu.) may refer to: Role or title * Executive, a senior management role in an organization ** Chief executive officer (CEO), one of the highest-ranking corporate officers (executives) or administrators ** Executive dir ...

and the current Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel for the Green Bay Packers. Previously, Policy was the Commissioner of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

Early life and education

Policy was born in

Youngstown, Ohio Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County. At the 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of the Youngstown–Warren metropolitan area, whi ...

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

and

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (A ...

executive Carmen Policy, and Gail Policy. Policy attended the Holy Family grade school and played youth football for the Poland Bulldogs. He attended and graduated from Cardinal Mooney High School in

. He played from 1985–1988 seasons as an offensive guard and linebacker. In 1987 Policy's team won the Ohio state high school football championship. Policy earned a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

from Notre Dame, and went on to graduate from

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (Stanford Law or SLS) is the law school of Stanford University, a private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, it is regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world. Stanford La ...

in 1996.

Career

Early career

Policy worked for the law firm

Heller Ehrman Heller Ehrman LLP was an international law firm of more than 730 attorneys in 15 offices in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Heller Ehrman was founded in San Francisco in 1890 and had additional offices located in most of the major finan ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

and then the

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

-based Thompson Hine LLP, where he worked on sports facility construction.

Arena Football League

Policy began working for the Arena Football League in 2001, eventually briefly becoming Commissioner of the league when he took over on an interim basis for Commissioner C. David Baker, who stepped down two days before the 2008 ArenaBowl. Because the league subsequently shut down for the 2009 season, with the initial corporate organization filing for bankruptcy, the only actual AFL game contested during Policy's tenure as commissioner was the 2008 ArenaBowl (

ArenaBowl XXII ArenaBowl XXII was played on July 27, 2008 at New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana (the host of ArenaBowl XXI). It was the 22nd and final championship game in the history of the original Arena Football League. This was the fourth neutral s ...

National Football League

Beginning in 2009 Policy worked as a consultant for the National Football League, but left prior to the

2011 NFL lockout The 2011 National Football League Player lockout was a work stoppage imposed by the owners of the NFL's 32 teams that lasted from March 12, 2011, to July 25, 2011. When the owners and the NFL players, represented by the National Football League ...

Green Bay Packers

In 2012 the Green Bay Packers hired Policy to serve as Vice President and general counsel. He was promoted to

Chief Operating Officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

and general counsel in January 2018. The Packers said in a statement that Policy would, “take on a greater role in overseeing the business operations of the organization…" Since being named COO, Policy has overseen the development of the Packers'

Titletown District The Titletown District, also known as the Titletown Entertainment District or simply Titletown, is a mixed-use development located on of land adjacent to Lambeau Field in Ashwaubenon, Wisconsin. The district, which opened in 2017, was developed ...

. In February 2020, amid rumors that Green Bay was successful in their bid to host the 2022 NFL Draft, Policy said that the NFL had not awarded the rights to host the draft to Green Bay or any other city, but that the Packers would, "aggressively pursue the opportunity." Green Bay Packers head coach

Matt LaFleur Matthew Patrick LaFleur ( ; born November 3, 1979) is an American football coach who is the head coach for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He has served as the quarterback coach of the Washington Redskins, Notre Dame ...

confirmed that he signed a contract extension with the club in the months following the 2021 season, for which he publicly expressed gratitude toward Policy (and others key executives in the organization) for the opportunity to remain in Green Bay.

References

Living people Arena Football League commissioners Green Bay Packers executives Businesspeople from Youngstown, Ohio University of Notre Dame alumni Stanford Law School alumni Sportspeople from Youngstown, Ohio 1970 births 21st-century American businesspeople {{US-business-bio-1970s-stub