Major League Baseball promoted three executives -- Patrick Houlihan, Jamie Leece and Barbara McHugh -- to Senior Vice President positions for the 2018 Championship Season. Houlihan is now MLB Senior Vice President & Deputy General Counsel, Labor Relations. Leece was promoted to MLB Senior Vice President, Games and VR. McHugh now holds the title of MLB Senior Vice President, Marketing.
In his new position, Houlihan's responsibilities will expand in the Labor Relations Department, where he will help oversee MLB's relationship with the Major League Baseball Players Association, including advising the Major League Clubs on matters pertaining to the Basic Agreement; handling player discipline and grievances with the Players Association; and managing the Major League Baseball Players Benefit Plan. Between graduating from Georgetown University Law Center and joining MLB in 2012, Houlihan was an associate at the law firm of Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC.
Leece is responsible for MLB's gaming and virtual reality (VR) divisions with his role expanding globally to now oversee the worldwide strategy for all games and VR initiatives. He has played an integral role in the return of R.B.I. Baseball, helping MLB become the first U.S. professional sports league to develop and distribute its own console video game. Among other MLB-developed titles Leece has been instrumental in overseeing the award-winning MLB Home Run Derby mobile game, the MLB Home Run Derby VR experience and MLB At Bat VR. Prior to joining MLB, Leece was involved with world-renowned brands such as Halo, Max Payne, Guitar Hero, Temple Run and Conflict Desert Storm during his nearly three-decade career in the video games industry.
In her new role, McHugh oversees all aspects of MLB's Marketing including New Media and Content Marketing, Club Initiatives, Growth Marketing, International Events, and Marketing Operations and Media. McHugh originally joined MLB's digital arm, MLB Advanced Media, in 2009 where she was responsible for its marketing and digital advertising strategies, online ticket sales campaigns and cross-platform promotion of other e-commerce businesses and digital products such as MLB.TV and the MLB At Bat and MLB Ballpark mobile apps. McHugh, a Le Moyne College graduate where she currently serves as a member of the Board of Trustees, also worked for the Sports Museum of America and spent more than six years at the New York Mets.