The Oakland Athletics have promoted Taj Tashombe to Vice President of External Affairs, the club announced today. In this role, Tashombe will oversee community engagement and outreach for the team's new ballpark effort.
"Since joining our team earlier this season, Taj has served as our day-to-day external affairs lead, working closely with community stakeholders around our new ballpark development," said Oakland A's President Dave Kaval. "His expertise in political and community engagement, leadership, and external affairs will continue to help us as we focus on creating meaningful connections with the local community during this process of bringing a new ballpark to Oakland."
Tashombe joined the club in January as director of external affairs. Prior to the A's, Tashombe spent 15 years shaping his career as a branding executive, producing strategic media and experiential partnerships with major networks and Fortune 100 brands and leading sports and entertainment portfolios in conjunction with the NBA on TNT, NFL Sunday Night Football, and MLB Network. Tashombe has leadership experience in global brand engagement, strategy, and external affairs with Toyota, Hilton Hotels, Hyundai, and his own consultancy TSGG. While at TSGG, he was an advisor to Participant Media, Los Angeles World Airports (LAX), and Southern California Edison on critical path development for large scale projects and external initiatives.
Tashombe began his career gaining valuable political and community engagement experience as a special assistant to the Office of Congresswoman Barbara Lee, as well as to the Director of Communications at the Port of Oakland.
An Oakland native who once worked as an Oakland A's intern, Tashombe holds a bachelor's degree in business administration with a concentration in marketing from Clark Atlanta University (Atlanta).