Cristine Hurley
Cristine Hurley arrived at Northeastern in 1984 unsure of her career choice. She soon found a passion for business that would lead her to co-ops at IBM, Deloitte & Touche, Clairol/Bristol-Myers, as well as post-graduation stints at Ernst & Young and the Walt Disney Company. In 1998, her career path led her to apply for a position as director of finance and accounting at the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball franchise. Fifteen months after being hired, she was promoted to CFO, and in 2000 rose to vice president of finance. In 2005, she became senior vice president and CFO, overseeing all of finance, as well as information systems and human resources.
In late May 2007, Hurley made her second move within the world of professional sports finance: to the National Basketball Association. There she serves as vice president of team finance, working with and supporting the teams on financial and business matters. “One of the most favorable aspects of the job,” she says, “is working for Steve Richard [the NBA’s senior vice president of finance], who is also a Northeastern alum. Steve is a fantastic individual and very intelligent professional, for whom I feel privileged to work.”
Hurley is a big sports fan—“Baseball and basketball are my favorites, followed by football”—so this next step in her career is a natural fit. She expects that working for another league, will present much opportunity to learn. “My current job is more focused on building consensus and working with multiple parties towards a common goal rather than work independently,” she says. “It’s also helpful in my role that, even though I’m a member of the league office, I definitely understand the challenges at the team level. My hope is that…I can add value and efficiency to the industry as a whole.”
