Robert D. Manfred, Jr. was elected as the 10th Commissioner in the history of Major League Baseball on Aug. 14, 2014 by vote of the 30 Major League Clubs. He officially became the sport’s leader on Jan. 25, 2015. On July 26, 2023, Club owners again re-elected Manfred to another term through Jan. 25, 2029.

Since Manfred began as Commissioner, two labor agreements have continued MLB’s streak of uninterrupted play on the field since 1995, an unprecedented span of at least 31 consecutive seasons. In a landmark transaction in 2017, The Walt Disney Company acquired a 75% stake in BAMTech, a leading technology platform and video streaming company created by MLB. In 2022, the sport’s revamped joint Competition Committee approved a series of historic changes to rules, which followed several years of fan polling and experimentation in the Minor Leagues. The fan-driven steps that debuted in 2023 have dramatically improved pace of play, increased action and allowed for increased athleticism on the field. The average time of a nine-inning game in 2023 (2:40) decreased by 24 minutes from 2022 and 30 minutes from 2021, and MLB had its most stolen bases in a season since 1987. The 2023 season produced a +9.6% boost in attendance over 2022, the sport’s best year-over-year increase since 1993.

Manfred has overseen the development of closer relationships with youth baseball and softball organizations, and has allocated new resources toward improving MLB’s presence in the amateur ranks. Under his leadership in 2015, MLB launched its signature PLAY BALL youth engagement program, which has resulted in meaningful increases in baseball and softball participation, per the Sports & Fitness Industry Association (SFIA). Baseball and softball again combined to be the most participated sport in the United States among kids ages 6 to 12 with more than 6.5 million participants. In the first five years after the start of PLAY BALL, casual participation in baseball increased by nearly 90%.

Manfred has prioritized sustaining the game’s international growth, including through global events like the 2023 World Baseball Classic. In 2016, MLB returned to Cuba for the first time since 1999 as the Tampa Bay Rays played an historic exhibition game vs. the Cuban National Team on March 22 at Estadio Latinoamericano in Havana, jointly attended by President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro. In 2018, MLB staged regular season games in Puerto Rico and Mexico. In 2019, MLB opened its regular season in Japan, played multiple series in Mexico and held an historic June series in London, which were the sport’s first games ever played in Europe. MLB has also taken the game to non-traditional domestic locations with groundbreaking events in recent seasons at Fort Bragg, N.C.; in Williamsport, Pa.., home of the Little League World Series; and in Omaha, Neb., home of the NCAA’s Men’s College World Series. In August 2021 and again in August 2022, MLB held a regular season game at the famed Field of Dreams site in Iowa, celebrating the beloved baseball film. The 2021 White Sox-Yankees contest was MLB’s most-watched regular season game since 1998. In 2024, MLB played its first-ever regular season games in South Korea with a season-opening series and, the day after Juneteenth, held a tribute to the Negro Leagues by playing a game at Birmingham, Alabama’s legendary Rickwood Field, where Willie Mays played as a teenager.

In 2020, Manfred oversaw the successful completion of a season impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, prioritizing health and safety in its operations and creativity on and off the field. MLB became the first sports league to start and finish a season during a pandemic, doing so in its home markets as a powerful visual example to fans of a responsible return to the workplace. The 2020 season included a streak of 59 consecutive days without a positive test among players; a positivity rate of 0.05% among Major League players and staff; and a schedule with 99.8% of its 900 games played, missing only two games that had no Postseason ramifications.

Prior to being elected Commissioner, Manfred had served as MLB’s Chief Operating Officer since 2013, managing the Commissioner’s Office in New York on behalf of Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig. From 1998-2013, Manfred served as Executive Vice President, overseeing labor relations, economics and league affairs, and directing all collective bargaining with the MLBPA. Competitive balance has been a hallmark of MLB the last two decades, as there have been 15 different World Series Champions in the last 22 seasons, the most variety of champions in professional sports during that span. In addition, no Club has repeated as a World Champion since 2000, an active streak that is the longest in the history of not only MLB, but all professional sports. Manfred also represented MLB on all upgrades to the game’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, the toughest in American professional sports.

Under Manfred’s leadership, MLB has formed core partnerships with Boys & Girls Clubs of America, the Jackie Robinson Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer. In 2020, Manfred corrected a longtime mistake in the game’s history by conferring Major League status on the Negro Leagues, allowing future generations to more easily learn about this pivotal chapter and its meaning to the sport. Manfred has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Sports Lawyers Association and the Partnership for Clean Competition. He currently serves on the Board of DREAM, a nonprofit that uses the power of teams to inspire youth to recognize their potential. In April 2016, Manfred received the Judge William B. Groat Award from his alma mater, honoring outstanding professional achievement and service to Cornell’s ILR. In November 2017, Manfred received the Jacob K. Javits Lifetime Achievement Award from the Greater New York Chapter of the ALS Association for MLB’s efforts against Lou Gehrig’s Disease. In 2021, Manfred established MLB’s new annual Lou Gehrig Day to continue the game’s support in the fight against ALS.

Manfred is a 1980 graduate of the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) at Cornell University. In 1983, he received his law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was an articles editor of the Harvard Law Review. Manfred was a part of the Labor and Employment Law Section of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, LLP, and became a partner in the firm in 1992.

Manfred, a native of Rome, N.Y., who was born in 1958, has been married to his wife Colleen since 1982. The New York residents have four adult children. 

Bob Graziano is responsible for corporate strategy and development for J.P. Morgan Chase in the Western Region. In this capacity, Graziano provides strategic advice and support to the regional leadership team on expanding and building J.P. Morgan Chase's business in the West. He acts as a senior advisor to clients, prospects and colleagues.

Previous to his current role, Graziano was the Southern California Market Manager for J.P. Morgan’s Private Bank. Before joining J.P. Morgan, Graziano was Managing Director of the Family Advisory Services Group at Northern Trust. Prior to joining Northern, Graziano spent 18 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, serving his final six years there as the Club’s President & Chief Operating Officer. He was named to that post on March 19, 1998 upon the sale of the team to FOX, becoming only the 11th President in franchise history. He started with the Dodger organization in 1986 as Director, Financial Projects and was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in 1987 and Executive Vice President in 1997.

After earning summa cum laude honors, the University Trustees Award and a Business Administration degree, with an emphasis in accounting, from the University of Southern California in 1980, Graziano joined Ernst & Young. In early 1984, Graziano took a leave from Ernst & Young to work for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee as Manager, Ticket Operations.

Graziano has built a strong reputation in Southern California due to his community involvement and civic leadership. Graziano is Chair of the Los Angeles Sports and Entertainment Commission and the former Chair and current board member of the LA84 Foundation, which is the legacy organization created after the 1984 Olympic Games. Graziano is a board member of the Los Angeles Business Council, member of the Los Angeles CEO Council, and a member of the Leadership Council for International Medical Corps. Recently in the realm of sports, Graziano has been on the host committee for Super Bowl LVI in Los Angeles, the 2023 College Football Playoff, the Los Angeles World Cup 2026 and the Los Angeles NBA All-Star Game.

Graziano and his wife, Wendy Wachtell have five sons. Wendy is the Executive Chariman & CEO of the Joseph Drown Foundation in Los Angeles and is on the boards of Harvard-Westlake School, USC’s Sol Price School of Public Policy, and USC’s Center for Philanthropy & Public Policy. He is also a member of YPO Gold Los Angeles and a previous member of YPO Bel Air.

Noriko Honda Chen is an equity portfolio manager at Capital Group. She also serves on the Capital Group Management Committee. She has 34 years of investment industry experience and has been with Capital Group for 25 years. Earlier in her career, as an equity investment analyst at Capital, Chen covered Asian infrastructure, building materials and construction companies, as well as oil, gas and refining companies. She was also a research director for one of the global groups. Before joining Capital, she worked in the research department of Worldsec International Limited in Hong Kong (a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Bank) and was a manager in corporate finance. Chen holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Williams College and a degree in the Japanese Language Bekka Program at Keio University, Tokyo. Chen is based in San Francisco.

Hideharu Kojima is a partner in KPMG LLP’s Deal Advisory practice and leads the firm’s Japanese Practice within Deal Advisory. He has over 20 years of M&A advisory and professional accounting experience across the United States, Japan and Australia. His vast background and experience span many areas of transaction advisory, financial due diligence, post deal integration, financial reporting & accounting, and business transformation. Before his current home office in Los Angeles, he worked in New York, Tokyo (Japan) and Sydney (Australia).

Kojima specialized in cross-border transactions and has provided assistance on numerous cross-border and domestic transactions for both strategic and financial buyers. Participation in these transactions included leading and coordinating financial due diligence investigations, providing structuring advice, providing technical accounting guidance, assisting on sale & purchase agreement, closing balance sheet review, sell side due diligence, post-merger integration, and restructuring advice.

Scott Sugino is a corporate partner based in O'Melveny's Los Angeles and Tokyo offices. Specializing in technology-focused mergers and acquisitions and venture capital investments, Sugino is a trusted advisor to technology companies and investors.  Having spent a significant part of his two-decade plus legal career in O’Melveny’s Tokyo office, Sugino is a recognized leader in cross-border investments between Japan and the U.S.

John Landgraf is Chairman of FX Content & FX Productions, overseeing the original programming that has defined FX as the home of bold, fearless storytelling. As chairman, Landgraf is responsible for all aspects of development, production, marketing, and publicity for the FX brand, which has consistently created exceptional, award-winning programming that is among the most acclaimed in the industry. In addition to FX, Landgraf also oversees the National Geographic and Onyx Collective brands in the Disney Entertainment Television portfolio.

Under Landgraf’s leadership, FX has risen to all-time highs in ratings, awards, and acclaim. FX was the first basic cable channel to boast award-winning scripted series in both drama and comedy. Since launching its first scripted drama in March of 2002 with The Shield, FX has received 602 Emmy Awards nominations and won 134 Emmys. FX received 36 Emmy Awards in 2024, the most of any brand or streamer, as Shōgun made TV history with the most wins (18) by a series in a single season, including Outstanding Drama Series, and The Bear set the record for the most wins (11) by a comedy series in a single season, breaking its own record from the previous year.

Under Landgraf, FX evolved to become an above-the-title brand in the Disney Entertainment portfolio, giving FX an even greater role in entertaining audiences across Disney’s direct-to-consumer and linear services, including Hulu and the FX and FXX linear channels in the U.S., and Disney+ in all other territories.

Landgraf’s legacy of acclaimed and award-winning programs began with Rescue Me and continued with Damages, Sons of Anarchy, Justified, Nip/Tuck, The Americans, American Horror Story, Fargo, American Crime Story, Pose, Snowfall, The Old Man, Fleishman Is In Trouble, A Murder at the End of the World, and FEUD, among others, as well as hit comedies including It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer, Atlanta, Better Things, What We Do in the Shadows, DAVE, Reservation Dog, The Bear, English Teacher and a slate of docuseries and documentary films, including Welcome to Wrexham and Dear Mama. Landgraf most recently oversaw the global event series Shōgun along with A Murder at the End of the World, FEUD: Capote Vs. The Swans, The Veil, Clipped, and American Sports Story.

Landgraf joined FX as president of Entertainment in January 2004 and was elevated to the position of president and general manager of FX Networks in May 2005. He was named CEO in June 2013 and chairman in March 2019.

Before joining FX, Landgraf was president of Jersey Television, a company he co-founded in 1999 along with former Jersey Films partners Danny DeVito, Michael Shamberg, and Stacey Sher. From 1994-1999, Landgraf was vice president of Primetime Series at NBC, helping to develop or oversee shows including The West Wing, Profiler, Suddenly Susan, ER and Friends. He began his television career at Sarabande Productions as director of Development in 1988, rising to the level of senior vice president.

Landgraf holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and was a Coro Fellow from 1984-1985. He also served on the Pitzer Board of Trustees. Landgraf has been named chair appointee to the executive committee of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Board of Governors.
 

Christopher Grimes is the Los Angeles bureau chief for the Financial Times. He has previously worked as a reporter and editor for the FT in New York and London. He also spent four years in Tokyo, where he served as executive editor for Nikkei Asia, the flagship English language publication of the FT's parent company. Before joining the FT, he worked for Dow Jones and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.