Paul Bamundo

Paul Bamundo is an accomplished senior executive that has a great diversity of experience over his thirty-year career, having worked for professional and college sports properties, brands, agencies, tech/fintech companies and strategy consulting firms. He has held high-level marketing and operating roles for distinguished organizations including the National Pickleball League, Subway, the NBA, IMG and the Ivy League. With his varied business background, Paul is an expert in creating, developing and executing the strategic vision for growing organizations.

Background

Paul currently is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Pickleball League (NPL), the premier professional pickleball league for Champions Pros (age 50 and over). Under Paul’s leadership, the NPL has doubled in size from 6 teams in its inaugural season to 12 teams in 2024. The NPL Championships will take place from October 18-20 and will air on CBS Sports Network.

Previously, Paul was the Head of Global Sponsorships, Brand and Event Marketing for DXC Technology— a multinational information technology services and consulting company— where Paul was the architect of a groundbreaking relationship with Manchester United to have the DXC logo on game and retail jerseys. Prior to this role, Paul was Senior Vice President and Head of Marketing Partnerships and Business Development for fintech company Laurel Road, a brand of KeyBank that specializes in student loan refinancing for doctors, dentists and medical professionals. Paul directed a team which established relationships with several leading healthcare organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Dental Association, the American Psychological Association, CVS Health and Aon. Prior to working at this fintech, Paul was the Chief Marketing Officer for the Ivy League where he developed the first-ever Ivy League global branding platform and strategic marketing partnership initiative. As Ivy League CMO, he secured relationships with prominent brands including Coca-Cola, Porsche, Citizens Bank, Nike and Under Armour— highlighted by a landmark deal with TIAA that was the largest in the history of the Ivy League. Paul was also instrumental in establishing the long-term partnership with ESPN to have Ivy League Championships and key matchups on ESPN and ESPN+. Both the TIAA and ESPN partnerships remain cornerstone relationships of the Ivy League to this day.

Before serving as Head of Business Development and Managing Director for WPP’s sports and entertainment agency ESP Properties, Paul was the Global Director of Sports Marketing and Strategic Partnerships for Subway for the previous seven years. In that role, he was responsible for the brand’s extensive portfolio of sports sponsorships and negotiating all of Subway’s “Famous Fan” athlete relationships, including Pelé, Michael Phelps, Michael Strahan, Apolo Ohno, Mike Trout, Clayton Kershaw, CC Sabathia, Laila Ali, Russell Westbrook, Blake Griffin, Tony Parker, Nastia Liukin, Justin Tuck, Marcus Mariota, Torah Bright and Carl Edwards. Paul led a team that activated at major sporting events around the globe including the Summer and Winter Olympics, the World Cup, the Premier League, the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the NBA Finals. Under his leadership, Subway was named Sports Sponsor of the Year in 2011 for the Sports Business Journal’s Sports Business Awards. Additionally, Subway was declared the most buzz-worthy brand from 2010-2012 by YouGov. In 2012, Paul was selected as a recipient of the Sports Business Journal’s Forty Under 40 Award. He was also named to the Brand Innovators 40 Under 40 list in 2013.

Prior to his time with Subway, Paul was Director of Marketing Partnerships at the National Basketball Association— where he built and managed relationships with Toyota, AT&T, FedEx, State Farm, Spalding, Sony PlayStation and SiriusXM— and was Director of Sponsorship Sales for IMG— where he developed partnerships with Mercedes-Benz, Pepsi, American Express, Sprint, Olympus, Luxottica and Virgin. He started his career with Procter & Gamble and then worked in strategy and technology consulting for various firms before and after attending business school, including Accenture, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Paul is a 1999 graduate of the MBA program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a 1994 graduate of Cornell University. He has served on the Alumni Advisory Board of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative since its inception. Paul is a native New Yorker, and he and his wife Claire now live in Darien, CT. They have two sons — Dylan (fourteen years old) and Luke (twelve years old) — who keep them very busy. Outside of work, Paul enjoys volunteering his time and coaching Dylan and Luke in the various sports they play including tennis, basketball, lacrosse, football and baseball.