Merritt Paulson

Forty Under 40

Published March 12, 2012

Photo by: PORTLAND TIMBERS

When Merritt Paulson was working his first sports job, running marketing and business development for the NBA’s League Pass and NBA TV, he tried as often as he could to duck his head into the league’s well-regarded team marketing division. He even went so far as to attend seminars that the division ran for teams in the D-League, even when that meant traveling.

“I tried to pick [the marketing division’s] brain as much as I could,” said Paulson, who left the NBA in 2007 to lead a group that bought the minor league soccer and baseball franchises in Portland. “I was always up front with David [Stern] and Adam [Silver] about longer-term ambitions I had. I was conscious of keeping strong relationships with those guys and not being disingenuous.”

Team ownership was in Paulson’s plans from the time he got into sports. The son of former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, with a Harvard MBA to boot, he knew he had both the pedigree and the connections to put together an ownership group if he could find the right opportunity. In 2007, he found one after a three-year search. In Portland, he saw a pair of minor league franchises — one in Class AAA baseball, the other in the United Soccer Leagues — that hadn’t offered an upside. He signed local TV deals for both franchises, then turned his sights toward a publicly funded stadium renovation and a vault into Major League Soccer.

Heading into this, their second MLS season, the Timbers renewed more than 97 percent of season tickets, building a base of 14,750 with a waiting list of 6,500.

“I always knew I was in a unique and enviable position where I was going to have some backing if I had a plan that I could sell at the right time,” Paulson said. “I’ve always been attracted to entrepreneurial endeavors. That’s what excites me more than anything.”

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Age: 39 Titles: Owner and president Team: Portland Timbers Education: B.A., English, Hamilton College, 1995; MBA, Harvard Business School Family: Wife, Heather; two daughters Career: Last title was NBA senior director of marketing and business development, responsible for marketing and business development efforts of NBA TV and NBA League Pass; assumed ownership of the Timbers in 2007; team named the 18th MLS franchise in March 2009 FIRST JOB: Caddie at a golf club

Last vacation: Hawaii, in February what's on your ipod? Guns N’ Roses, The Killers, Ryan Adams, Shooter Jennings Guilty pleasure: Taylor Swift music Best stress release: Working out Pet peeve: People who are late Fantasy job: Helicopter ski guide WHAT KEEPS YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT: Fear of complacency Business advice: Of indecisive paralysis or making a mistake, the former is the more insidious organizational issue. That’s a fancy way of saying Teddy Roosevelt’s man-in-the-arena thing. Get in the ring and fight it out.