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The Bay Area Sports Business Awards have their inaugural judging panel: eight leaders spanning professional sports, coaching, sports journalism, Olympic competition, collegiate athletics and global brand management. 

Judges include:

• Billy Beane - Senior Advisor, Athletics Managing Partner / Former GM, Oakland Athletics
• Brandi Chastain - Co-Founder, Bay FC / 3x Olympian / 2× FIFA World Cup Champion
• Stu Jackson - Commissioner, West Coast Conference
• Tom Kelley - Global GM, Jordan Brand Golf, Nike
• Ann Killion - Columnist, San Francisco Chronicle
• Heather Owen - Director of Athletics, Santa Clara University
• Bill Schlough - Chief Information Officer, San Francisco Giants
• Kerri-Walsh Jennings - Founding Owner & Co-GM, MLV NorCal / 5× Olympian

Created by the Leavey School of Business in partnership with the San Francisco Chronicle, the Bay Area Sports Business Awards were created to honor individuals and organizations whose contributions exemplify innovation and ethical leadership within the region’s sports business community.

Below is a look at the eight leaders now weighing the finalists: 

Billy Beane enters his fourth season as senior advisor to the Athletics' managing partner, following 18 seasons as general manager and seven years as executive vice president of baseball operations, a tenure with the club dating back to 1997. Under his leadership, the team compiled a 2,072-1,874 record over 25 seasons, with seven American League West titles and four AL Wild Card berths. Beane received MLB's inaugural Executive of the Year award in 2018 and was twice named Baseball America's Executive of the Year. His data-driven approach to team-building was chronicled in the bestselling book and film "Moneyball." A San Diego native, he studied economics at UC San Diego.

Brandi Chastain, co-founder of Bay FC, brings a career that has shaped women's sports on and off the field. A two-time FIFA Women's World Cup champion and three-time Olympic medalist, Chastain is best known for the penalty kick that sealed the 1999 World Cup title – a moment widely credited with shifting the trajectory of women's soccer in the United States. A Santa Clara University alumna, she has spent the three decades since coaching, advocating and building pathways for younger athletes, work that continues through Bay FC and the Bay Area Women's Sports Initiative.

Stu Jackson arrives with more than four decades across coaching, league operations and conference leadership. He served as the NBA's Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations, was the first president and general manager of the Vancouver Grizzlies, and coached the New York Knicks. At the college level, he led the University of Wisconsin men's basketball program to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 47 years. Since 2023, he has served as commissioner of the West Coast Conference.

Tom Kelley, a Leavey School of Business alumnus, has spent his career at the intersection of sport and brand-building. He began by leading U.S. advertising for Nike at Wieden+Kennedy, then spent 14 years at Nike itself, where his work across Jordan Brand helped grow it from a single-category basketball label into a global performance and lifestyle brand. He has also founded and led several early-stage sports startups. Today he serves as global general manager of Jordan Brand Golf at Nike and sits on the board of USA Rugby.

Ann Killion has covered Bay Area sports for more than a quarter century as a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, where she has written since 2012. A veteran of 13 Olympic Games, multiple World Cups and the Tour de France, she previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated. Killion is a New York Times best-selling author, having co-written "Solo: A Memoir of Hope" with Hope Solo and "Throw Like a Girl" with Jennie Finch. She has been named California Sportswriter of the Year three times.

Heather M. Owen leads one of the country's most recognized mid-major athletics programs as director of athletics at Santa Clara University. A former Stanford women's basketball standout and WNBA player, Owen spent 16 years at Stanford Athletics, rising to deputy athletics director, before returning to Santa Clara, where she also earned her law degree in 2023. Her background pairs competitive experience with legal training and senior athletics administration.

Bill Schlough has served as senior vice president and chief information officer of the San Francisco Giants since 1999, a tenure that has made the organization one of the most technologically forward-looking franchises in professional sports. Under his leadership, Oracle Park became the first venue to offer free fan Wi-Fi and now runs the first outdoor Wi-Fi 6E network in sports. A CIO Hall of Fame inductee and Sports Business Journal "Forty Under 40" honoree, Schlough has also worked at Olympic Games across four continents.

Kerri Walsh Jennings is the most decorated beach volleyball athlete in Olympic history – a five-time Olympian and three-time gold medalist whose 112-match win streak with partner Misty May-Treanor remains unmatched. A Bay Area native and alumna of Archbishop Mitty High School and Stanford, she has carried that competitive drive into business, co-founding the youth-to-pro volleyball platform p1440 and serving as a founding owner of MLV NorCal, which is bringing professional indoor volleyball to the region where her own career began.

Voting among the panel concludes in September. The inaugural class of winners will be honored at the November 9 awards gala in San Francisco as well as on the .