Don Gibson

Former MLB Executive, Attorney

Local Board Member, Arizona

Don Gibson has more than 30 years of experience as an attorney, business executive and entrepreneur in the sports and entertainment industries. He has represented entertainers, athletes and companies in business and in legal matters, and has spent more than 20 years in senior leadership positions with major sports organizations.

Don worked eight years with Major League Baseball. He first served as an attorney in the Commissioner’s Office, then as Vice President and General Counsel, and as Senior VP/Acting President, of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc., the division responsible for Major League Baseball’s licensing, corporate sponsorship, special events and marketing. Following his tenure with Major League Baseball, Don served as the chief executive of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. He was responsible for all day-to-day administration of the institution, including management of the $103 Million new Hall of Fame Riverfront development project.

After four and a half years with the Basketball Hall of Fame, Don left to pursue entrepreneurial interests in Los Angeles. He formed his own sports management agency, XL Sports, and then became a principal and co-founder of Section 1, a sports and entertainment consumer products company. Don subsequently returned to private law practice, joining the law firm Dreier Stein Kahan LLP based in Santa Monica, California as a Partner, heading up the firm’s new sports law practice. He also simultaneously launched and became Chief Operating Officer of Dreier Sports Opportunities, which provided sports marketing and business development services to athletes and businesses.

When both Dreier entities ceased operating in January 2009, Don launched Kavi Sports & Entertainment, a consulting firm that provides a broad range of services to clients in the sports and entertainment industries, including strategic planning, licensing, branding and business development. In January 2014, he co-founded and launched Brandtheon, which provides brand development and

brand management services to sports and entertainment personalities. Don is a Professor of Practice with the Arizona State University, Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, teaching courses in sports law and business in the school’s Sports Law & Business Program

Don graduated in 1980 from Bucknell University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, and in 1983 from UCLA School of Law with a Juris Doctor degree. At UCLA School of Law Don was a member and Chief Comments Editor of the Law Review. Following law school, he was Law Clerk to

United States District Court Judge David W. Williams in the Central District of California, and a Teaching Fellow at Stanford Law School where he taught Legal Research and Writing to First Year students.