Speaker > Biography

Kenneth L. Shropshire

David W. Hauck Professor;
Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics
Director, Wharton Sports Business Initiative
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

Kenneth L. Shropshire is the David W. Hauck Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Faculty Director of its newly launched Wharton Sports Business Initiative. He served as Chairman of the School’s Legal Studies department from 2000-2005. Shropshire joined the Wharton faculty in 1986 and specializes in the subject areas of sports business, negotiations, diversity and general business law. He teaches the Negotiation and Dispute Resolution course both at Wharton’s main campus in Philadelphia and at Wharton West in San Francisco. He is also president of the largest organization of attorneys in the sports business, the Sports Lawyers Association.

His past consulting roles have included a wide variety of projects including work for the NCAA, National Football League, the United States Olympic Committee, negotiation training for IBM, Clorox, Fannie Mae and Major League Baseball and diversity training for entering Wharton School MBA students. The mayor of Philadelphia appointed Shropshire to chair Philadelphia’s stadium site selection committee and he is involved in projects focused on future Philadelphia bids for the Olympic Games. He has also served for the past two years as the Academic Director of Wharton’s Entrepreneurial Management Program for NFL players focusing on their transition away from the game.

After receiving an undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford University and law degree from Columbia University Law School he was in practice law in Los Angeles and later served as an executive with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee leading up to the 1984 Olympics held in Los Angeles.

He is the author or co-author of seven books, the most recent, The Business of Sports with Scott Rosner. His other books include, The Business of Sports Agents, In Black and White: Race and Sports in America and The Sports Franchise Game. He is now at work on a book called Being Sugar Ray: the Birth of the Modern Celebrity Athlete, to be published by Basic Books next year.

He is an organizer and member of the Board of Directors of the Valley Green Bank in Philadelphia. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Florida Coastal School of Law and the Board of Directors of NutraCea (NTRZ.OB).

Shropshire has provided commentary for a number of media outlets including Nightline, CNN, the New York Times, USA Today, National Public Radio and Sports Illustrated.