The Buffalo Bills announced they have hired Jason Hartlund as chief commercial officer and Kate Hussmann as chief strategy officer. They will join Josh Dziurlikowski, who has been promoted to Senior VP and Chief Administrative Officer and Senior VP, and Chief Legal Officer Terry Gilbride on the Bills new business leadership team reporting to Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Pete Guelli.
Hartlund will oversee the team’s commercial operations, which includes all revenue and marketing functions, while Hussmann will oversee all strategic planning, business intelligence/analytics, and special projects. They both will begin their new roles with the Bills in mid-October.
“Adding quality talent to the Bills front office has been a priority for the last several months,” said Guelli. “We took a hard look at our organizational needs and underwent a deliberate search across the sports industry to hire both Jason and Kate. They are both experienced, smart, and multi-talented and work with a team-first attitude.
“They have the type of institutional knowledge we need and produced high levels of success in other sports. We anticipate that will continue in their new roles in Buffalo, especially as we transition to a new stadium. Another exciting part is that they both showed a great desire to relocate to Buffalo and I’m grateful to add two highly talented individuals to our leadership team, joining Josh D. and Terry Gilbride.”
Hartlund joins the Bills after a 17-year stint with the Milwaukee Brewers, most recently as their executive vice president and chief commercial officer. He was promoted to that role in 2022 and became the first person in the Brewers history to have oversight of all revenue generating initiatives, marketing and social media. He directed all ticket sales and services, suite sales, partnership sales and activation, special events, concerts, business development and consumer marketing.
Hartlund, who previously worked for the Brewers from 2005-15, returned to the organization in 2018 as senior vice president and chief revenue officer. He played an integral role in many of the team’s most significant accomplishments, including negotiating the American Family Insurance naming rights deal and adding Northwestern Mutual as the team’s first jersey patch partner. Hartlund was on the forefront of creating new revenue streams, such as the opening of X-Golf and J. Leinenkugel’s Barrel Yard at American Family Field, the Brew City Battle basketball games and securing top billing artists across all music genres to perform at the ballpark.
Prior to rejoining the Brewers, Hartlund spent two-and-a-half years (2016-18) as managing director of business development and new arena sales for the Milwaukee Bucks. While with the Bucks, he led sales efforts for the $1 billion, 30-acre mixed-use development in downtown Milwaukee, including securing the naming entitlements for both the Bucks’ new state-of-the-art arena, Fiserv Forum, and practice facility, Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin Sports Science Center.
Prior to originally joining the Brewers in 2005, Hartlund served as manager of corporate sales for the Green Bay Packers from 2002-05.
Hartlund is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
He and his wife, Lisa, have a daughter, Maggie, and a son, Matt.
Hussman has over a decade of experience working in strategy and operations across the sports industry, including stints at both the NBA and MLB.
She joins the Bills from the MLB league office, where she was hired in 2021 to launch their first cross-functional club advisory group. She partnered with all 30 MLB Clubs to aggregate and standardize data across ticketing, sponsorship, and marketing, leveraging strategic insights to drive revenue and fan engagement across the League.
Prior to her time in baseball, she built and led the strategy team at Hornets Sports and Entertainment (HSE). While in Charlotte, she worked at the intersection of sports and technology, managing a portfolio of unique, large-scale projects for HSE, ranging from All-Star 2019 to the Hornets’ first Global Games appearance in Shenzhen and Shanghai, China, to the Time Warner Cable/Spectrum Center rebrand.
Hussmann graduated with honors from Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and earned her MBA from Wake Forest University
She grew up a three-sport athlete, constantly competing with her older brothers and cousins, and loves working in the industry that helped shape who she is and provided her with so many fond memories.
Kate and her husband, Jason, were recently married and will be relocating to Western New York.