Alumni Spotlight: Charlie Dowd L'88 by Mike Borg L'88
Published March 2019 for Prima Facie, the newsletter of the Law Alumni Association
I recently caught up with Charlie Dowd, a member of the Western New England (College) University School of Law Class of 1988 who was recently named as Deputy Director of Athletics for External Affairs at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut.
Dowd did not follow the prototypical law school graduate path. Rather, he has used his legal education from WNEU in pursuit of his baseball passion. “If I can’t play professional baseball, I want to be involved in the business of baseball,” he said.
I remember talking to Charlie many years ago when he was in the NY Mets organization. When I would see him at Shea Stadium after the Bar Exam, with my girlfriend - now wife - he would always move us down from the nose-bleed seats to a nice field level box! He described a conversation he had with his boss, Joe McIlvaine, the Assistant General Manager of the Mets at the time. McIlvaine asked him what his career goal was, and Charlie responded, pointing to McIlvaine’s desk, “Your job!”
Upon receiving his law degree, Charlie began his career in the world of sports and entertainment as a group sales representative with the New York Mets from 1988-89. He went on to become the Assistant General Manager of the Midland Angels, a Class AA minor league affiliate of the then California Angels, followed by general manager positions with stints as the general manager of the Salinas Spurs (S.F. Giants affiliate), New Haven Ravens (Colorado Rockies affiliate) and the Bridgeport Bluefish (unaffiliated).
Most recently, Charlie was the Senior Vice President of Operations for Harbor Yard Sports & Entertainment. Under his watch, Webster Bank Arena was the home venue for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers (New York Islanders affiliate) and hosted NY Islander games and numerous NCAA Women’s Basketball and Men’s Ice Hockey Regionals, in addition to concerts such as Bob Dylan, Elton John and John Mayer.
While Charlie’s career has allowed him to wear shorts to work for the first 27 years, he credits his legal education at Western New England as providing him with the legal skills necessary for negotiating contracts to build new sports facilities and to renovate others.
Charlie and his wife, Dawn, reside in Connecticut with their three sons: Casey (25), Conner (23) and Tristan (21).
Written by Mike Borg L’88
Pictured below: Charlie Dowd and teammates on November 12, 1986 on the athletic fields, with Plymouth Residences in the background. The fields are now the site of Western New England University's Center for the Health Sciences and Pharmacy.
