Paul DePodesta has made a career of evaluating, measuring and assigning value to talent, and is currently Vice President of Player Development and Scouting for the New York Mets.
Formerly the Executive Vice President of the San Diego Padres, and the General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers during the 2004-05 seasons, DePodesta was the third-youngest person ever to assume the role of Major League GM. Assigned the task of turning around a team that had not won a postseason game since 1988, DePodesta guided Los Angeles to a playoff berth in his first season at the helm. Quoting then-Dodgers owner Frank McCourt: “We wanted to find the best possible person. We found that man in Paul.”
Michael Lewis documented the A’s remarkable success – despite a shoestring budget – under the Beane/DePodesta team in his New York Times best-seller Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. The book is a hit not just with baseball fans but also with business leaders looking for new approaches to stagnant systems. Overhauling – rather than merely tweaking – the thought processes behind an outdated organization is essential for innovation and success, something DePodesta knows better than most. At the podium, he discusses the innovative strategies he used to create a winning team, as well as the application of these strategies in the corporate world.
AT A GLANCE: After graduating Cum Laude from Harvard College with a degree in economics, DePodesta worked in the Canadian Football League and the American Hockey League. He then joined the Cleveland Indians Baseball Club as an intern in Player Development. Within a year, the Indians made him the advance scout for the Major League team, and two years later he was appointed Special Assistant to the General Manager.
In 1999, DePodesta’s first season as Oakland’s Assistant G.M., the Athletics enjoyed their first winning season in seven years and began a run of four consecutive playoff appearances, including three American League West Division Titles. Amidst the remarkable run, the Toronto Blue Jays offered to make DePodesta the youngest General Manager in the history of Major League Baseball (an offer he declined). His work has been recognized by various publications, including Fortune, who named one of the Top 10 innovators under 40. He is married and lives in southern California.
