LARRY HANSON
CATHOLIC HERALD STAFF
It’s apparent Jon Greenberg took heed of the lessons on servant leadership during his Catholic 
upbringing and education.
The team president of the Milwaukee Admirals hockey team since April 2005, Greenberg can be seen completing all kinds of tasks that help make things run smoothly for the city’s American Hockey League franchise.
“I do a lot of things that I think a normal team president with a major-league team wouldn’t be doing,” Greenberg said. “Rather than just overseeing the whole thing, you’re still getting your hands dirty. If it’s time to hand out promotional items at a game, and we need somebody, I’ll jump in. If we need to go out and do a public speaking engagement, I’ll jump out and do that. If we need to have somebody hand out candy or something at a parade, I’ll go do that. It’s really whatever opportunities are out there that we need to fill in.”
It kind of has to be that way when you’re one rung down the professional hockey ladder from the National Hockey League, and there are just 17 full-time employees in the organization.
“It is a minor league team, (and it’s) all hands on deck,” Greenberg said. “Everybody does a little bit of everything. They have their main thing, but then there’s all the little things that we all have to chip in to make it happen.”
Before coming to the Admirals, Greenberg was the PR director for the Milwaukee Brewers, working his way up to the position during his 22 years with the baseball club.
In 2005, when Harris Turer (the second-largest investor in the Brewers) was looking to buy the Admirals, Greenberg was one of his first calls.
“I was in my apartment in spring training hanging out and he said he was going to buy the team,” Greenberg said. “He was looking for a president. The first thing that ran through my head was I started thinking of people to recommend to him. He stopped me, and told me he wanted me to do it, which was shocking to me. It’s been a real blessing, because this has been a great opportunity for me to be able to work for two sports teams in my own home town.”
Greenberg (three Catholic elementary schools and Marquette University High School) and wife Shannon (Divine Savior Holy Angels High School) are both products of Catholic education, and their daughter Caroline is a junior at St. Thomas More High School, near their St. Francis home.
“I think (my Catholic upbringing) guides me every day,” Greenberg said. “There’s no question about that. My parents really drummed that in, especially my mom — give back. My time at Marquette High School really drove that home. All of a sudden, you go live the experience you had there, and it really just cements everything you’re taught.”
Jon Greenberg was named as one of the two parent liaisons to the St. Thomas More board of directors just a few months ago and has been on the advancement and recruitment committee for almost three years.
This year, the Admirals will celebrate their 50th season and will open up Sunday, Oct. 6, on the road before opening the home portion of the schedule on Saturday, Oct. 12, at UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
