Stephen Whitfield Swindal is an American businessman. He is the chairman of Port Tampa Bay. Swindal was a general partner of the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Am ...

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

from 1998 through 2007, and in 2005 had been chosen as

George Steinbrenner George Michael Steinbrenner III (July 4, 1930July 13, 2010) was an American businessman who was the principal owner and managing partner of Major League Baseball's New York Yankees from 1973 until his death in 2010. He was the longest-serving own ...

's successor as head of the Yankees.

Biography

Early life and education

Swindal graduated from Berkeley Preparatory School in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, and the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

(UNC). He earned his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in history in 1976. He hoped to become a doctor, but was not accepted into

medical school A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, professional school, or forms a part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, ...

, and he then took postgraduate coursework in biology at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

. He returned to Tampa to work for his family's furniture wholesale company.

Career with New York Yankees

Swindal met Jennifer Steinbrenner, a UNC alum and daughter of

principal owner

, through a mutual friend in Tampa. They married in 1983. Swindal initially continued working for his family's business, but eventually joined the

American Shipbuilding Company The American Ship Building Company was the dominant shipbuilder on the Great Lakes before the World War II, Second World War. It started as Cleveland Shipbuilding in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1888 and opened the yard in Lorain, Ohio, in 1898. It chan ...

, owned by George Steinbrenner. He then ran a

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

company Steinbrenner owned until it was sold in 1995. Swindal then joined the Yankees front office. He became a general partner of the team and chairman of

Yankee Global Enterprises Yankee Global Enterprises, LLC, formerly YankeeNets, LLC, is an American limited liability company (LLC) which owns the New York Yankees baseball team, along with a plurality stake in YES Network and 10% stakes in New York City FC and AC Mila ...

, including a financial stake. Swindal led the Yankees in negotiating a contract extension with

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Joe Torre Joseph Paul Torre Jr. (; born July 18, 1940) is an American professional baseball Senior management, executive and former player, Manager (baseball), manager, and television color commentator. He has served as a special assistant to the Commiss ...

in 2004. In June 2005, he was named by Steinbrenner to be his eventual successor as head of the Yankees.

Arrest and buyout

In February 2007, Swindal was arrested for

driving under the influence Driving under the influence (DUI) is the crime of driving, operating, or being in control of a vehicle while one is impaired from doing so safely by the effect of either alcohol (drug), alcohol (see drunk driving) or some other drug, whether re ...

(DUI) of alcohol. He had been driving to his boat, where he planned to sleep for the night. The following month, he and Jennifer released a statement saying that they were in the process of a divorce. The Yankees bought out Swindal's stake of the franchise in September; Hal Steinbrenner succeeded him as chairman of

. Swindal pled no contest to DUI in November, agreeing to a suspension of his driver's license for six months, a year of probation, and 50 hours of community service.

Post Yankees career

In 2007, Swindal became chairman of Marine Towing, a

business when he bought out the Steinbrenner family stake.

Charlie Crist Charles Joseph Crist Jr. ( ; born July 24, 1956) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th List of governors of Florida, governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 and as the United States House of Representatives, U.S. represen ...

, the

Governor of Florida The governor of Florida is the head of government of the U.S. state of Florida. The Governor (United States), governor is the head of the Government of Florida#Executive branch, executive branch of the government of Florida and is the comman ...

, appointed him to the board of Port Tampa Bay in 2008. The next year, he opened a baseball academy in

Boca Chica Boca Chica is a municipality (''municipio'') of the Santo Domingo province in the Dominican Republic. Within the municipality there is one municipal district (''distritos municipal''): La Caleta. As of the 2022 census it had 167,040 inhabitan ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

, with Hans Hertell, a former United States Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, and Abel Guerra, a former Yankees front office executive. Swindal became vice chairman of the board of Port Tampa Bay. When the chairman resigned in 2013, Swindal succeeded him. Governor

Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...

reappointed Swindal as chairman in 2018.

Family

Swindal has two children: Haley and Stephen Jr. Both graduated from UNC. Haley is an actress who has appeared on Broadway and Stephen Jr. works in the baseball operations department of the Yankees.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Swindal, Stephen Living people New York Yankees executives Businesspeople from Tampa, Florida American business executives University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Steinbrenner family Year of birth missing (living people)