Sam Shainsky ‘11, a Rice graduate who double-majored in Sport Management and Mathematical Economic Analysis, has recently been hired by Bleacher Report as a Strategy Manager.
Shainsky, who is from Portland, Oregon, went into consulting right after finishing his undergraduate degree. In 2015, he decided to pursue his MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. At Anderson, he is the president of the Sport Business Association and he will receive his MBA in June 2017.
Even at this level of his career, Shainsky still falls back to teachings from the Sport Management faculty.
“The program was really foundational for me,” Shainsky said. “I developed a personal relationship with Professor Stallings from the beginning and he opened my eyes to my dream job. I still come back to the advice he gave me as an 18-year-old.”
At Rice, Shainsky was involved in club lacrosse, the Rice University Sport Business Alliance (RUSBA) and was a member of Lovett College. He also had five internships in the sports industry and can point to one that helped him go into strategy and analytics.
“I interned with the Houston Rockets in business strategy and analytics,” Shainsky said. “The experience was important and opened my eyes to how business strategy can work in sports.”
Like with many Sport Management majors, Shainsky got value from the experiences he had at Rice. Now, he is working for Bleacher Report, a sports media giant, analyzing big picture monetization strategies, revenue streams and business models.
Steven Johnson, a junior from Bremerton, Washington, is double-majoring in Mathematical Economic Analysis and Sport Management.