"Until such time as the composition of the the LPGA Board changes, they'll keep hiring Marketing people ala the 'Brand Lady.'"

Jim McCabe writes about the strong marketing background of new LPGA Commissioner Whan:

“These are difficult times, but he will bring a lot of skills to the job,” Rugge said. “He is a solid marketing guy,” adding that Whan is "full of energy” and "has plenty of ideas.”

If Whan used a business philosophy to guide him, it was similar to what he used at Procter & Gamble years earlier and Mission Itech recently.

“I’m a guy who builds brands,” said Whan, when asked how a guy with golf, toothpaste, and hockey skates for a background will lead the LPGA. “I believe in brands.”

Now I understand he's just been thrown into a news conference with little knowledge of the organization and he has to say something, so some jargon is inevitable. But after sleeping on the notion that the LPGA has again hired another marketing-driven type prone to brand worship, I've been trying to figure out why they went down this road again.

Thankfully, reader Sam must have been reading my mind:

I was curious why the LPGA seems so fixated on hiring Marketing types.  What I learned was that all of the outside Board Members, save one, are marketing gurus. From lpga.com:

"The LPGA independent board members are: Leslie Greis, founder, CEO and managing member of Perennial Capital Advisors, LLC; Dawn Hudson, former president and chief executive officer, Pepsi-Cola North America, Pepsico, Inc.; Bill Morton, former chief executive and current chairman of Jack Morton Worldwide; Bill Susetka, former CMO of the LPGA as well as former president, Clairol U.S. Retail and Clairol International; and Nancy Wiese, former vice president of worldwide brand marketing/advertising, Xerox Corporation. Hudson is chairman of the Board of Directors of the LPGA."

Greis is a finance type.

Until such time as the composition of the the LPGA Board changes, they'll keep hiring Marketing people ala the "Brand Lady."