Chris Golier

Chris Golier is VP of business development, technology partnerships, and sponsorship sales for the National Hockey League, responsible for driving the growth of the League through revenue generating partnerships and strategic initiatives.

Upon joining the League in 2010, Golier led the strategy and development of a robust mobile product portfolio which included mobile applications, tablet applications, mobile web sites, SMS alerts, Bluetooth beacon deployments, and tools to engage the fans. Under his leadership was the launch of NHL GameCenter which offered fans the ability to stream live NHL games on a wide range of smartphones and tablets, gaming consoles, and connected televisions. This award-winning and top grossing OTT app had a global install base of millions of fans and hundreds of thousands of paid subscribers.

More recently, Golier has been developing platforms to drive audience growth and maximize long term profitability. He defined the League’s esport strategy and leads a cross-functional group, including clubs and media rightsholders to produce and market its global tournament and associated events. He has provided strategic direction for the league across a wide range of digital opportunities to help bring the fan closer to the game including enhanced data, gaming, and development of content franchises. He helped to create the initial strategy for publishing and marketing on third party social platforms and led the partnerships and monetization strategy with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube which has led to billions of video views.

Prior to joining the League, Golier built a successful career in launching, monetizing, and marketing innovative digital services. He served in senior management roles for global media companies including at MobileBehavior, an Omnicom Group company; NBC where he led the development of the first mobile services for NBC’s 200+ stations; and Conde Nast where he built an international publishing division spanning 30 editions in 50 countries. In addition, Golier worked for tier 1 VC funded startups where he was part of innovative product teams that pioneered next-generation messaging and IVR services (i3 Mobile, IPO 2000) and location-based services (Vicinity, IPO 2000, acquired by Microsoft 2002).

In addition, Golier has served on advisory boards to seed stage startups in areas of go-to-market strategy, client and VC pitch decks, business development activities, and industry expertise.  He serves as a mentor to startups for accelerators including ERA and Techstars. Golier has also published multiple golf instructional books and video with world famous teachers Jim McLean and David Leadbetter.

Golier has spoken at many industry events and summits including SXSW, Landmark Ventures, NYVC, BusinessInsider, Media Post, Mobile Marketing Association, ad:tech, DigiDay, and Wharton School of Business.

He received his B.A. in economics from UCLA and an M.B.A. from NYU’s Stern School of Business.

Featured in: SVG Digital (Monday)