John Church JMI - A Storied Career

John Church JMI - A Storied Career Long before John Church came to be associated with Just Marketing, Inc.’s/JMI rise as one of the world’s leading companies in global sports and entertainment sponsorship industry, he had already established a strong reputation as being one of the best in selling and brokering major sponsorship deals. Indeed, since he got his start in the industry in the early 1990’s, John Church has enjoyed much success at each company he has worked.

A freshly minted graduate from ASU with a degree in Business Finance, John Church’s first job was as an Account Executive for Phoenix Professional Baseball Inc. He was responsible for the servicing, customer relationship development and sales of tickets, sponsorship, promotions, luxury sky boxes and media packages for the owners of the San Francisco AAA club. It was during his tenure that Church was able to witness the opening of the new Scottsdale Stadium and the development of a new commercial inventory.

After two years, John Church JMI was hired by the Stratford American Sports Corporation as a Sponsorship and Promotions Manager, and was responsible for customer relationship management and sale of tickets and promotions for the controlling partners of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. This experience was particularly useful as the lead-in to Church becoming the Sports Marketing Manager for Chip Ganassi Racing Teams in 1994. Here, he participated in the development of Target Stores’ groundbreaking vendor-partnerships for team owners of IndyCar, NASCAR and Grand-Am sports cars. Thanks to a business relationship with the former SVP of IMG Motorsports, John Church learned first-hand the business model and powerful synergies of combining retail merchandising, consumer promotion and sponsorship.

John Church’s career was starting to peak at the right time, as from 1996 to 2000 he moved to Pittsburgh and joined the Continental Management Group (CMG) as Senior Director of Sports Marketing before being promoted to Vice President of the same department. It was here that Church was able to develop and manage major sponsorships with global brands such as Yahoo, Pennzoil, Pepsi, and Briggs and Stratton, among others. He also led and managed advertising and sponsorships for an ESPN2 racing production.

At this point in his career, John Church JMI had established himself to be hardworking, savvy and creative. So it came as no surprise that he joined Just Marketing International in 2000, which at the time was working to become the leading company in the motorsports sponsorships industry. And they did just that, thanks to John Church’s tireless dedication to developing an industry-leading CRM system and business development system that made JMI the world’s largest and most successful motorsports marketing agency.