Former FIFA Executive and Long-time U.S. National Team Player to Oversee League Operations

SAN FRANCISCO (October 28, 2008) – Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) today announced the hiring of veteran sports and business executive Mary Harvey as its new Chief Operating Officer effective November 10.

Harvey will directly oversee day-to-day operations at the league, with a particular focus on league financials, expansion, non-revenue partnerships, player processes and competitions. As part of the oversight of competition issues, Harvey will be responsible for scheduling, day of game standards, procedures, match officials and in-stadium experience for league games.

"WPS gains an outstanding A-team player today in the hiring of sports executive Mary Harvey,” said WPS Commissioner Tonya Antonucci. “From her start-up and management consulting experience to her senior role overseeing FIFA's global development efforts, Mary has shown steadfast leadership in growing the women's game globally and is highly qualified and experienced in the business of soccer. She will surely have a big impact on the future success of WPS as we prepare for launch in April 2009."

“The Commissioner, team owners and league investors have done an incredible job laying the groundwork for this league,” said Harvey. “I’m honored to have the opportunity to contribute to all the preparations and planning work that is on-going for the 2009 season and look forward to making the on-field product and game day experience the best it can be come April 2009. I’m excited to get started.”

Harvey was most recently the Director of Development at the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) in Zurich, Switzerland. When she signed on to join FIFA in 2003, Harvey became the first woman and first American to run a business division as a member of senior management at the international governing body. At FIFA, Harvey oversaw a team of 20 staff and 50 consultants globally to deliver programs and projects to develop the sport worldwide. Harvey also initiated the launch of several important projects for the development of women’s soccer in particular including a project that identified best practices in the development of the women’s game globally, staging nearly a dozen seminars involving over 150 countries. The findings from this project were presented at the 4th FIFA Women’s Football Symposium, a two-day event attended by 500 senior football executives from 200 countries.

Prior to her position at FIFA, Harvey worked for global consulting powerhouses, Deloitte and Accenture, and was a consultant to the CEO of the 1999 Women’s World Cup on issues related to ticketing, pricing and marketing strategies.

On the field, Harvey enjoyed an eight-year career with the U.S. Women’s National Team, playing from 1989-1996. She was the starting goalkeeper for the U.S. in the inaugural 1991 Women’s World Cup and a member of the 1996 Olympic gold medal-winning team in Atlanta. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of California at Berkeley’s Walter A. Haas School of Business and received her MBA from the Anderson School of Business at UCLA. She will work out of the WPS office in San Francisco.

About Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS)

The mission of Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) is to be the premier women’s soccer league in the world and the global standard by which women’s professional sports are measured.  Play kicks off in the spring of 2009, with WPS teams based in the Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey/New York, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C.  The league expects to expand in 2010 with the addition of Atlanta and Philadelphia, while working to secure a facility for a Dallas team for the second WPS season. For more information, visit www.womensprosoccer.com.