Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer
The 2023 season is Jonathan Gilula's 26th in Major League Baseball and 21st as a member of the Boston Red Sox organization. In his role as Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer, Gilula oversees Business Operations for the club, including ballpark operations, event operations, facilities management, fan services, game entertainment, Red Sox Productions, Fenway Park Tours, ballpark planning and development, and Florida business operations.
Over the course of his tenure in Boston, Gilula has played an instrumental role in a wide range of the club's business ventures. Most notably, Gilula has led the club's effort to preserve, protect and enhance Fenway Park, which celebrated its 100th Anniversary in 2012 and is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball. Other areas of focus have included enhancing the game day operations and customer service at Fenway Park, improving the quality and expanding the menu of food and beverage offerings, and planning and implementing non-traditional, ancillary uses of Fenway Park that have resulted in a series of popular and historic events.
Gilula oversaw the design, construction and business planning of JetBlue Park at Fenway South, the Red Sox Spring Training and player development complex in Lee County, FL, which opened for the 2012 spring training season. The state-of-the-art, single-site facility, designed to meet the long-term needs of the organization and to create the premier spring training and player development complex in Florida, was nominated by Sports Business Journal as Sports Facility of the Year in 2013.
In addition to his Red Sox responsibilities, Gilula also assumes a key leadership role in coordinating all of Fenway Sports Group's real estate activities, serving as Managing Director of FSG Real Estate. In this capacity, he is responsible for the planning and implementation of FSG's real estate strategy around FSG venues. FSG Real Estate's first major development project beyond the walls of Fenway Park was the MGM Music Hall at Fenway, a 5,000-person capacity performing arts venue, which opened to critical acclaim in August of 2022. Gilula and the FSG Real Estate team also continue to advance work with the joint venture development project that includes WS Development and the D'Angelo Family ('47 Brand) to redevelop approximately eight acres of land surrounding Fenway Park.
The start of Gilula's baseball career dates back to June 1998 when Larry Lucchino - then President/CEO of the San Diego Padres - hired Gilula to work on the planning and development of the team's forthcoming ballpark and its surrounding neighborhood. As Director of Ballpark Development, Gilula was a member of the leadership team that coordinated the design and construction of Petco Park, the current home of the Padres, which opened in downtown San Diego in 2004.
Gilula serves as President of the Board of the Fenway Park Living Museum Fund, a non-profit organization created in 2012 to promote public awareness and education about the history of Fenway Park. He also is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Pan-Mass Challenge, the nation's largest athletic fundraiser, which through the 2022 event has raised $900 million for cancer research and treatment through the Jimmy Fund since its inception in 1980. In January 2011, Gilula was selected as one of Sports Business Journal's "40 Under 40" Award recipients, an honor that recognized him as one of the best young talents in the business of sports.
Born in New York City, Gilula grew up in La Jolla, CA. He graduated with a degree in politics from Princeton University in 1998, where he was captain of the varsity tennis team and named First Team All-Ivy League in 1997 and 1998. Gilula resides in Chestnut Hill, MA with his wife, Robin, their daughter, Brin, and son, Cameron.