Ben Shields

Senior Lecturer at MIT Sloan School of Management

Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States

About

I am a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. My work as a teacher, researcher, and practitioner focuses on digital transformation in the sports, media, and entertainment industries. I teach a number of courses in the graduate programs at MIT Sloan. I created and teach Creative Industries: Media, Entertainment, and the Arts; Social Media Management; and Sports Strategy and Analytics. I also teach Communication for Leaders and co-teach the Sloan Fellows Seminar on Leadership. In 2022, I received the Jamieson Prize for Excellence in Teaching for Excellence in Teaching, MIT Sloan's most prestigious teaching award. I teach extensively in the MIT Sloan Executive Education program as well. I am the Faculty Director of the Global Executive Academy. In addition, I created and teach the open enrollment program Data-Driven Teams: The Art and Science of Winning. I also teach in two other open enrollment programs: Communication and Persuasion in the Digital Age and Maximizing Your Personal Productivity. I am the author or co-author of three books, Social Media Management: Persuasion in Networked Culture (Oxford University Press, 2016), The Sports Strategist: Developing Leaders for a High Performance Industry (Oxford University Press, 2015), and The Elusive Fan: Reinventing Sports in a Crowded Marketplace (McGraw-Hill, 2006). I have also co-authored MIT Sloan case studies on Formula 1 and the National Women's Soccer League. Prior to MIT I served as the Director of Social Media and Marketing at ESPN. I hold a BS and MA in communication studies and a PhD in media, technology, and society, all from Northwestern University.

Experience

  • MIT Sloan School of Management (Cambridge, MA)
    • Senior Lecturer in Managerial Communication
      Feb 2017 - Present · 9 yrs 6 mos

    • Lecturer in Managerial Communication
      Aug 2014 - Jan 2017 · 2 yrs 6 mos

  • ESPN (5 yrs 10 mos)
    • Director, Social Media
      May 2011 - May 2014 · 3 yrs 1 mo

    • Associate Director, Brand & Fan Strategy
      Aug 2008 - May 2011 · 2 yrs 10 mos

  • Lecturer in Marketing at Kellogg School of Management
    Mar 2008 - Jun 2008 · 4 mos