Joey Nevin ’01 serves as the director of sales and marketing for San Francisco Giants Enterprises. From the Opera at the Ballpark to the Bruce-Mahoney Baseball game at AT&T, Joey directs all new business development for Giants Enterprises. We recently caught up with the 2001 graduate to learn more about his story as a City native working for the World Champions.
Describe your time as a student at SHC.
Looking back, I really think that I blazed my own path. I grew up with a sister and a dad who both went to St. Ignatius. I still stand behind my decision to attend SHC 110 percent, for multiple reasons.
All four years were memorable. The camaraderie among all classes was always something that stuck with me. I look back and remember the run we made in basketball my senior year. I made First Team All-WCAL and it meant a lot to me knowing my hard work paid off.
I was also the student body vice president and remember the days learning from Bill Corkery, Pete Gresh ’72, Matt Gallegos ’78, and Coaches Tim Burke ’70 and John Perez ’81.
I left San Francisco to play basketball at the University of San Diego. It was an easy transition from SHC to college, and San Diego provided a lot of opportunities for me. I even played basketball for a year in Ireland as a player-coach and spent some time traveling abroad.
How did your graduate studies lead to your position with the San Francisco Giants.
I wanted to get on the scouting and coaching side of sports, but my time at the University of San Francisco in their Sport Management Program opened my eyes to other opportunities.
During my time in Ireland, I applied to the USF program and began my studies in 2007.
I was introduced to a few individuals at the Giants’ organization and a few months later I was invited to interview. I was fortunate enough to begin a role as sales coordinator. From there, I have moved my way up to manager and now director of sales and marketing for San Francisco Giants Enterprises. It has been incredible learning experience. I started out as a Giants fan my entire life. My first job was as a junior in high school selling baseball caps across the street at MoMo’s. To come from that to working here and seeing the championship runs in 2010, 2012 and 2014, has been an unbelievable ride.
Giants Enterprises are all non-game day events. Any new business development, everything from Opera in the Ballpark to college soccer games, meetings, receptions ... it is ever changing.
Being a San Francisco native, it takes some time to learn and know how to interact with individuals outside of our tight-knit community. Going from SHC to USD and then to USF was all about going with my gut instincts. I have always allowed my interest to guide me in and pursue every venture as best as I can. I believe that with every project you take on you need to own and get behind it. It makes the the entire process easier. In graduate school, our cohort was able to build our career through separate projects and initially I wanted to be in scouting/coaching.Taking those experiences from grad school and realizing I wanted to pursue the business side made more sense to me and helped me tremendously moving forward.
What can students do to stay positive?
Always stay humble. There is always more to learn and more people to meet. Positive communication and staying connected with a wide network of individuals can take you a lot of places.
What else is new with you?
I just got married to my beautiful wife Lisa at the end of January. My groomsmen were Michael Curutchet ’01, Marty Murphy ’01, Conor Kelly ’01, Teddy Mino ’01, and Sean Joyce ’01. I am living in the City and I am fortunate to have my entire family here in San Francisco.
I also serve as the president of Hibernian-Newman of San Francisco. The goal of our organization is linked to SHC through our support of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. We are comprised of Irish natives or Irish-American Catholics who come together to help push the mission forward.
I am thrilled to be a part of such an organization and I look forward to continuing to help our community.
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