{"id":17080,"date":"2025-09-10T08:37:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:37:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=17080"},"modified":"2025-09-10T08:37:22","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T12:37:22","slug":"ceo-of-pacers-sports-entertainment-to-headline-upcoming-presidential-lecture-series-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/Q3\/ceo-of-pacers-sports-entertainment-to-headline-upcoming-presidential-lecture-series-event","title":{"rendered":"CEO of Pacers Sports &amp; Entertainment to headline upcoming Presidential Lecture Series event\u202f\u202f\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 Mel Raines, the top executive for Pacers Sports &amp; Entertainment, will join Purdue University President Mung Chiang in early October for a timely conversation as part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/lecture-series\/\">Presidential Lecture Series<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Titled \u201cLeading Teams on and off the Court: Business, Community and the Power of Sports,\u201d the Raines PLS event is at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 2, in Stewart Center\u2019s Fowler Hall. The event is free and open to the public but a ticket is required. For tickets and more information, go <a href=\"https:\/\/am.ticketmaster.com\/purdue\/buy\/ism\/UExTMTAwMg==\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As CEO of Pacers Sports &amp; Entertainment, Raines oversees all business operations for the Indiana Pacers of the NBA, the Indiana Fever of the WNBA, the Noblesville Boom of the G League and Gainbridge Fieldhouse. She has more than 30 years of operations, legislative, political, corporate and public affairs experience.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/chiangmung-pls.jpg\" alt=\"Purdue University President Mung Chiang\" class=\"wp-image-10417\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/chiangmung-pls.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/chiangmung-pls-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Purdue President Mung Chiang<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>\u201cMel has had an incredible career, starting in politics and then the business of sports, where she is considered a pioneer and leader, guiding two professional basketball franchises \u2014 the Pacers and the Fever \u2014 to incredible success,\u201d Chiang said. \u201cMoreover, her role in building community engagement through Pacers Sports &amp; Entertainment will be of utmost interest to the Purdue community in West Lafayette, Indianapolis and our Presidential Lecture Series audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Prior to joining the Pacers organization 11 years ago, Raines was chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana, managing three offices and all legislative, constituent services and communications staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From 2009-12, she was a principal architect of Indianapolis\u2019 acclaimed 2012 Super Bowl, serving as vice president of government relations and event operations for the 2012 Indianapolis Super Bowl Host Committee and 14 committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She also has worked in various roles on six Republican National Conventions including as chief operating officer for the 2008 convention and as a senior advisor for the 2012 and 2016 conventions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Earlier in her career, Raines served as assistant to Vice President Dick Cheney for political affairs, directing all of Cheney\u2019s political and domestic outreach activities. She also held several leadership positions at Altria Corporate Services and at the Republican National Committee. She began her career on Capitol Hill with U.S. Sen. Daniel Coats of Indiana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A South Bend native and graduate of Indiana University with a degree in telecommunications, Raines sits on the board of directors of the Pacers Foundation, Indy Chamber, Visit Indy, the Indianapolis Zoo and the Economic Club of Indiana as well as the board of trustees for Citizens Energy Group.\u202fShe lives in Indianapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n    <div  class=\"purdue-home-quick-links-static \">\n        <div class=\"tagged-header-container\">\n\n            <h2 class=\"tagged-header\"><span>ADDITIONAL INFORMATION<\/span><\/h2>\n        \n        <\/div>\n\n       <ul class=\"quick-links-content\">\n                                        <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/www.indystar.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/pacers\/2025\/02\/27\/indiana-pacers-ceo-mel-raines-usa-today-women-of-the-year\/77597247007\/\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    USA Today Women of the Year: Pacers CEO relishes building community through sport                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9YBGXBiox4I&amp;t=1s\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    Mel Raines: From politics to pro sports, a prime-time player                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                            <\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About the Presidential Lecture Series<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Launched in 2014 by then-Purdue President Mitch Daniels and continued by President Mung Chiang, the Presidential Lecture Series exposes Purdue students and the broader community to inspiring ideas, courageous leadership, and models of civic engagement and civil discourse. The Presidential Lecture Series has had over 40 guests of many viewpoints and perspectives and hosted some of the great intellectual, <a>business<\/a> and civic leaders of our time. As one of the world\u2019s premier centers of scholarly leadership, Purdue is \u2014 appropriately and necessarily \u2014 a regular venue for great thinkers across a wide variety of disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Purdue University is a public research university leading with excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities in the United States, Purdue discovers, disseminates and deploys knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 107,000 students study at Purdue across multiple campuses, locations and modalities, including more than 58,000 at our main campus locations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 14 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its integrated, comprehensive Indianapolis urban expansion; the Mitch Daniels School of Business; Purdue Computes; and the One Health initiative \u2014 at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives\">https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<div id=\"note\" class=\"post-content__attribution \">\n    <div class=\"columns\"> \n                    <div class=\"column\"> \n                <p class=\"post-content__source\">\n                    <strong>Media contact:<\/strong> Erin Murphy, <a href=\"mailto:ermurphy@purdue.edu\">ermurphy@purdue.edu<\/a>, 765-496-5603                <\/p>\n            <\/div>\n                    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. \u2014 Mel Raines, the top executive for Pacers Sports &amp; Entertainment, will join Purdue University President Mung Chiang in early October for a timely conversation as part of the Presidential Lecture Series. Titled \u201cLeading Teams on and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":17074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"department":[],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[243],"class_list":["post-17080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17080"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17091,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17080\/revisions\/17091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17080"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=17080"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=17080"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=17080"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=17080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}