Friday, September 5, 2008

The Mover

Former Red Sox exec swings for fence at TruMedia

By Amy Castor, Special to Mass High Tech

Rafe Anderson is a Red Sox fan to the bone. But while most boys grow up wanting to play for the team, his dream was to get in on the business side.

And he did.

The new president and CEO of TruMedia Networks LLC, a company that designs online communities for sports fans, is a former executive for the Boston Red Sox and Fenway Sports Group, where he worked for six years. 

Anderson had always loved sports. But he knew passion alone wouldn’t get him a job in the field. He needed marketable skills. “Everyone wants to get into sports,” he said. “I figured if I armed myself with knowledge other people don’t have, I might be better equipped.” So he got a degree in computer science at Clark University in Worcester.

It didn’t immediately land him a job in sports. For three years after college, he worked on his own. “I worked with different companies developing websites and search engine optimization strategies. At that time, digital media was in high demand, and people didn’t care if you were 25 or 45 as long as you had the knowledge.”

But all the while, he was thinking: Red Sox. Friends were skeptical. “ ‘You’re never going to get a job with the Boston Red Sox,’ they told me. ‘Everyone wants to work for them.’ And they were right. Those jobs are in high, high demand. For one job opening, there are a thousand people waiting at the door to get in.”

Anderson didn’t let that stop him. “I sent letters and e-mails, and I would basically call them every two weeks. I was extremely persistent.” Finally, when the Boston Red Sox needed someone to help launch a program that would enable season ticket holders to resell tickets online, he got offered an interview, and eventually, the job.

“Working for the Red Sox was a dream come true,” said Anderson, who also played a key role in developing the marketing strategy for Red Sox Nation, the team’s online fan club. Eventually, he went on to become director of business development for Sox sister company Fenway Sports Group, where he developed an online marketing strategy for NASCAR team Roush Fenway Racing.

Anderson looks forward to applying his talents to helping TruMedia launch its first fan sites. “It’s a competitive market, but I wouldn’t have gotten into this if I was afraid of competition,” he said. “TruMedia has a unique model to differentiate itself, and the timing is perfect.”
 

Amy Castor is a freelance writer in Amherst.