John Shea

John Shea is that rarest of creatures in sports marketing: Someone who has spent his entire career with one company.

John Shea Age: 37 Title: Executive vice president, consulting Company: Octagon Education: B.S., St. John’s University, 1993 Family: Wife, Laura; children Jack (7), Connor (5), Reilly (3) and Kieran (19 months) Career: Began career in 1993 as an intern with Advantage International, which evolved into Octagon, and has spent entire career with the company. Last vacation: Nantucket Last book read: “Secrets of Greatness” Last movie seen: “Eastern Promises” What’s on your iPod? A full range of rock and alternative Pet peeve: Insincerity Greatest achievement: Family Fantasy job: Coach of the U.S. men’s national soccer team Executive you most admire: Herb Kelleher, co-founder and chairman of Southwest Airlines Business advice: Follow your passion and surround yourself with good people.

He started as an intern at what then was Advantage International and is now Octagon. More than 14 years later, he is running what's generally acknowledged as one of the best sports marketing consulting practices around, with heavyweight clients such as Sprint and MasterCard.

Like so many in the business, Shea grew up with dreams of plying his trade on the fields of pro sports. As a teenager, he realized that wasn't going to happen. So while at St. John's University, Shea pursued a series of sports internships, the last of which was with the 1994 World Cup Organizing Committee, for which he got a taste for working all sides of the business and was hooked.

"It showed me that I could make a career out of sports," he said.

Using his World Cup experience, Shea got into Advantage, initially working on a soccer program for clients such as P&G and MasterCard.

"I knew right away I liked doing this kind of work," said the self-effacing Shea. "Whether I'm any good or successful at it, time is still telling."

As you might expect from a company lifer, Shea is happiest when talking about some of the clients that Octagon has serviced for more than 15 years, like BMW and MasterCard. "The story of our success here has been to act like marketers first and have a real focus on our clients' business before we recommend any marketing solutions," he said. "If you focus on that, the rest should be easy."

Shea counts the work on rebranding NASCAR's top circuit from Winston to Nextel as some of his firm's most effective. This year, it faces a re-rebranding, this time to the Sprint Cup.

"I'm not sure this will be as easy, but we are comfortable having done this before," he said.