Xavier Gutierrez

Q: What most notably stands out about your leadership style or what is an example of leadership success you can share with our readers?

I’ve learned a great deal throughout the course of my career from many talented mentors and “door openers” who invited (challenged) me to be in places I knew nothing about, but ending up exactly where I should be. Although I’ve absorbed elements from each of these leaders, the thing that most embodies my own style can be summarized in one phrase (with a special shout out to my Jesuit high school education): “Be a Man for Others.”

It’s obviously my responsibility to ensure we’re successful in a competitive landscape of professional sports, whether as a business or a hockey team. But I firmly believe we also have a profound responsibility to effect positive change more broadly across culture, commerce and community. At every step along the way, I’ve tried to balance and reconcile a competitive spirit to succeed in all my endeavors, with a deep sense of responsibility to give back, uplift and empower others.

Sports has a unique and powerful role in bringing diverse communities together in a common rallying cry, and we lean into that every day. I have been proud of all our many efforts at the Coyotes to use our incredibly powerful platform to make an impact on the community around us, in the lives of others. The single biggest lesson I’ve learned is that if you remain focused on the opportunity to leverage your voice to do for others, it will also pay massive dividends on fulfilling your competitive desire to win.

Q: What impact has COVID-19 or the disruptions of the past 18 months had on you as a leader?

I embarked on this journey into professional sports in June of 2020, approximately two months into the spread of COVID-19. For a business that is rooted in human interaction and in filling arenas, this was clearly not when you want to make a career change into a new industry. It was a trial by fire, and we faced unprecedented challenges in ensuring the safety and well-being of our staff, players and community first and foremost. However, this was also a blessing in disguise as we were forced to innovate and think creatively about who we are and what is possible as a sports franchise. COVID highlighted the importance we played as an organization in finding innovative ways to bring our community back together safely, in supporting the businesses in the Valley that were struggling to survive, and in inspiring people during some very tragic times. As a business, we had to think outside the box, become nimbler and more entrepreneurial in our approach to running the team — all of which has carried on to this day.

Q: What do you feel we can be doing as a business community to empower economic growth here?

In many ways, Phoenix is the city of the future now, embodying scale, diversity and innovation. But as we think about how we can further spur economic growth, we should first start by leaning into and harnessing the power of our growing diverse cohorts: young, female, diverse (especially Latino), tech-savvy, purpose-driven. Our diversity is a major competitive advantage and will be a strength of the Valley going forward as those growth cohorts continue to change the face of this country.

Second, we need to encourage not only institutional investment in the Valley, but that institutional capital makes this their “home.” We need to have major institutional investment firms and vehicles headquartered or with significant offices in the Phoenix area. This will not only lead to more exciting investments in those companies and opportunities that currently are here, but will also encourage businesses to relocate or set up operations in the Valley; it will spur new entrepreneurs to come here and start the businesses of the future; it will position this area as the place where ideas and businesses can grow because the capital and the investment decision makers are here to be connected with.

Finally, we have to highlight and grow the industries that this community is naturally a leader in. Climate technology, infrastructure, real asset resiliency and sustainability, sports and live events — these are all areas that the Valley should absolutely be the forefront leader of, and the industries that this business community should be pushing to gain prominence in.

Q: What is new and notable for your company’s near future that will impact our economy?

In addition to our continued efforts to identify a permanent home for our exciting future, we’re thrilled to have struck a groundbreaking broadcast rights deal with Scripps Sports and are excited about the recent launch of Arizona 61, a new independent channel that is the Home of the Coyotes. We watched closely the past few years as the traditional regional sports network model grew more challenged, and pivoted to an approach focused on increasing accessibility, reach and engagement for our fans and “fans in waiting” by having our games on free over the air. We are thrilled to be partnering with Scripps, which is a leading broadcast company with stations across the country, and who has made a significant commitment to live sports. We see a huge upside in advertising / sponsor revenue and, most importantly, we will now reach a much wider audience of almost three million homes, at no cost to our loyal fans, in Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.