Rob Gallas
robgallas@keypartnersgroup.net

Rob Gallas retired in May, 2004 after serving for nearly 15 years as Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Broadcasting, for the Chicago White Sox. Gallas was responsible for directing the club's sales, marketing, public relations, advertising, community relations, broadcasting and charitable efforts.

Under Gallas' guidance, the Sox closed old Comiskey Park in 1990 and opened new Comiskey in 1991, and set 8 of the club's 10 all-time attendance marks.

Sox marketing efforts introduced fan-focused and fun events like Kids Sundays, Family Mondays with half-price admission, Dog Day, Elvis Night, Sleepover Night and FUNdamentals, an interactive baseball skills area just for kids. The White Sox logo and uniforms, unveiled at the end of the 1990 season, consistently set MLB sales records and consistently have kept the Sox near the top of merchandise sales.

White Sox advertising won dozens of local and national honors during Gallas' tenure. Some of the most memorable included "The Kids Can Play," "Dear Sox," and "Bo Jackson's Hip Season Ticket Plan." In 1990, Gallas invented the landmark "Turn Back the Clock" promotion, creating an in-park 1917 atmosphere that included retro uniforms, a manual scoreboard, fans' costume contest and 5-cent popcorn wagon. The promotion was honored by MLB and eventually was copied by MLB, NBA, NHL, minor league and college teams.

Prior to the White Sox Gallas worked as group manager of marketing communications for a division of Baxter Healthcare in Deerfield, Illinois, as well as for a Chicago PR firm on Anheuser-Busch and Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co. accounts.

Gallas began his career as a reporter for the Daily Herald in Northwest Suburban Chicago, including a stint from 1976 to 1983 as the White Sox beat writer. He received the Jacob Scher Award for investigative journalism in 1975 and in 1980 captured UPI's Illinois Newspaper's Best Sportswriting Award.

<< Back