Valerie Camillo and the Philadelphia Flyers aim to open doors for women in sports with the ‘Next Shift’ program, which launched on March 21.
Courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers
On the ice, the Philadelphia Flyers celebrated a 6-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Behind the scenes, the organization also enjoyed a big win with the launch of a new program called ‘Next Shift: Mentoring the Next Generation of Female Leaders.’
Created to help celebrate Women’s History Month, with an eye to the future as well as the past, Next Shift paired 25 girls and young women from ages 14 to 22 with women who are working in the Flyers organization for a game-day shadowing experience.
Courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers
The roles being shadowed included everything from the game presentation and broadcasting through community relations and marketing and extended all the way up to the front office.
The president and CEO of Spectacor Sports and Entertainment, Valerie Camillo, mentored 22-year-old Grace Swider.
“I’ve been to Flyers games many times,” said Swider, who said she was looking forward to learning more about how Camillo became one of the highest-ranking female executives in hockey.
“Being a woman who wants to work in the sports world, seeing what steps I have to take and how how I can get to where I need to be,” she said. “Not the quickest, but the quickest that I can. I want to be here. I want to do this. I’m here. I’m ready.”
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Camillo joined Comcast Spectacor and the Flyers as president of business operations in 2018 and was promoted to her current position in 2022.
After earning her MBA, she started out in consulting, and that led her to work with the NBA. Before signing on with the Flyers, she also served as chief revenue and marketing officer for baseball’s Washington Nationals.
As a trailblazer, Camillo places a premium on developing relationships.
“For me personally, it was networking that led to my first opportunity in sports,” she said. “That’s the story of so many people. So, starting to build your network — that’s really what this program is about, and hopefully it’ll lead to great things.”
Next Shift is intended to fill a void, creating an opportunity for young women that has typically been scarce.
“I would have loved a program like this when I was in my high school and college years, which is really what the program is targeted for,” Camillo said. “That’s part of how we ideate here. ‘What were the gaps that we experienced coming up, and how do we fill them for the next generation?’ “
Courtesy of Philadelphia Flyers
Since she joined the Flyers, Camillo has taken deliberate steps to diversify the company’s workforce at all levels.
“First of all, just being intentional about creating the right sort of environment,” she said. “It is a networked industry and good stories spread, so that’s one way you do it, by reputation.
“We have a very strong female executive leadership team,” she added. “While representation is important at all levels and all employees can be a leader, it’s very important that there are a variety of diverse voices ‘in the room where it happens.’
“Our executive leadership team within the sports and entertainment division is fully balanced — 50 percent men and 50 percent women — and that group has been together now for awhile. So that matters, too.”
In many respects, Next Shift mirrors the Flyers’ hockey operations – it’s a scouting mission on the business side.
“We had conversations, talking amongst ourselves, about building new relationships with these women that we hope will sustain over time — potentially leading into internships down the road,” Camillo said. “And then, who knows? Maybe someone in the group is a future team president or general manager or even commissioner.”
Is there a preferred path to one of those top executive roles?
“What I always say is — there’s a lot of roles that may be of interest,” Camillo shared. “But if you want to be a team president, stay close to the money and stay close to the revenue.
“Those are the paths that tend to find their way into the top seat.”
News Summary:
- Valerie Camillo, Flyers Launch 'Next Shift' Program to Mentor Young Women in Sport
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