Mark Shapiro (; born April 3, 1967) is an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

executive, currently working as the president and CEO of the

Toronto Blue Jays The Toronto Blue Jays are a Canadian professional baseball team based in Toronto. The Blue Jays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since 1989, the team has played its home games ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (A ...

(MLB). He worked with the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central division. Since , they have ...

from 1991 to 2015, beginning in player development and ending as team president.

Early and personal life

Shapiro was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

, on April 3, 1967. He is the son

Ronald M. Shapiro Ronald M. Shapiro (born March 29, 1943) is an American attorney, sports agent, author, negotiator, educator, speaker, and civic leader. Biography Shapiro was born on March 29, 1943, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Mark and Lillian Shapiro. H ...

, an attorney and sports agent in Baltimore, and the brother-in-law of former

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conferenc ...

coach

Eric Mangini Eric Anthony Mangini (born January 19, 1971) is a former American football coach and current television sports analyst. Mangini had been with the San Francisco 49ers since 2013 and served as the team's tight ends coach for two seasons before b ...

. He graduated from the

Gilman School Gilman School is an all-boys independent school located in the Roland Park neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. There are three school divisions: Lower School, grades pre-kindergarten through five; Middle School, grades six through eight; and ...

in 1985, after playing first base for the baseball team, and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

in 1989 with a degree in history, after playing center and offensive tackle for the Princeton Tigers football team. Shapiro has one son, Caden, and one daughter, Sierra. They lived in

Bentleyville, Ohio Bentleyville is a village in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 864 at the 2010 census. Bentleyville was laid out in 1831 by Adamson Bentley, and named for him. Geography Bentleyville is located at (41.413520, -81.412996 ...

while Shapiro worked for the Indians. Shapiro was played by actor

Reed Diamond Reed Edward Diamond (born July 20, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for the roles of Det. Mike Kellerman on '' Homicide: Life on the Street'', Jason Pillar in season 8 of '' 24'', and recurring character Laurence Dominic on ''Dollhouse' ...

in the 2011 film ''

Moneyball ''Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game'' is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's analytical, evidence-based, sabermetric appro ...

''.

Baseball career

Shapiro joined the

organization in 1991, when he was recommended by former Tribe GM Hank Peters. He had worked his way up from player development director to Assistant

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

, and in 2001 became General Manager. Shapiro was named Executive of the Year by the ''

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'' in 2005 and 2007, following 90+ wins seasons by the Indians, including an

American League Central Division The American League Central is one of Major League Baseball's six divisions. This division was formed in the realignment of 1994 by moving three teams from the American League West and two teams from the American League East. Its teams are all loc ...

Championship in 2007. At the end of the 2010 season, he became the Cleveland Indians team president, with

Chris Antonetti Chris Antonetti is an American professional baseball executive, currently serving as the President of Baseball Operations for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). Biography Antonetti is a graduate of Amity Regional High School ...

succeeding Shapiro as general manager. On August 31, 2015, The

announced that Shapiro would become their new president and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the end of the 2015 season, succeeding

Paul Beeston Paul McGill Beeston, (born June 20, 1945) is a Canadian former professional baseball executive. He was the president and chief operating officer of Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1997 to 2002, and the president of the Toronto Blue Jays from 19 ...

. Shapiro did not formally begin working in the new role until October 31, 2015, the same day that Beeston retired. In a press conference on November 2, Shapiro named

Tony LaCava Anthony F. LaCava (born May 21, 1961) is an American professional baseball executive for the Toronto Blue Jays, currently serving as their Senior Vice President, Player Personnel. In 2015, he served as the interim general manager and vice preside ...

the interim general manager, to replace

Alex Anthopoulos Alex Anthopoulos (born May 25, 1977) is a Canadian professional baseball executive, currently working as the general manager and president of baseball operations for the Atlanta Braves. He was the senior vice president of baseball operations and ...

. Subsequently, on December 3, 2015, Ross Atkins was named as the team's sixth general manager, under him.

Awards

* Two-time ''Sporting News'' Executive of the Year (2005, 2007) * Honorary Doctor of Letters from

Baldwin Wallace University Baldwin Wallace University (BW) is a private university in Berea, Ohio. It was founded in 1845 as Baldwin Institute by Methodist businessman John Baldwin. The school merged with nearby German Wallace College in 1913 to become Baldwin-Wallace C ...

(2014) * 2007

Champion (as Indians Executive VP/GM)

Early and personal life

Baseball career

Awards

References

Further reading