The Sound Bite – MGP Speaker’s Bureau

The purpose of the program is to connect high school, college students and graduates with working professionals in the industry in an in depth “lunch & learn” style forum. Guest lecturers, will address the audience on core values & trends that undergird the level of leadership that MGP seeks to develop.  Additionally, The Sound Bite will serve as a speakers bureau for MGP members who have a passion for connecting to audiences around key topics.

To view a video from previous sessions, please click here.

Current Speaker(s) include:

Erin O. Patton

Patton has been instrumental in the most notable footwear product launches in history. During his tenure with Nike, Inc, he was hand picked by Michael Jordan as the original architect for the JORDAN brand, engineering its successful launch in 1997. He later spearheaded NBA star Stephon Marbury’s award-winning Starbury brand launch that revolutionized the sneaker industry and earned launch of the year from Footwear News and Advertising Age in 2006.

As an expert on consumer behavior, Patton has also been hailed for “cracking the code on the urban market” with his breakthrough 7 Ciphers™ segmentation study that attracted flagship sponsors including MTV, Pepsi and The Brookings Institution.

Gifted as a dynamic public speaker with extraordinary communication skills, Patton is highly sought out as a speaker at conferences, symposiums, universities and corporations. He has appeared as an expert on ESPN, CNN, VH1, and Fox News and been quoted in USA Today, Time, Newsweek, Business Week, Wall St. Journal and Fortune. In 2009, he released his first book, “Under The Influence: Tracing the Hip-Hop Generation’s Impact on Brands, Sports & Pop Culture” to critical acclaim.

Patton currently serves on the faculty of the SMU Cox School of Business as an Adjunct Lecturer. As a staunch proponent of transformational leadership to enhance organizational effectiveness, he also conceived the SMU Cox Sport Leadership Consortium in 2009. The innovative program targets front-office executives of sports franchises and businesses as well as professional athletes transitioning from sports to business.