Jamie Zaninovich

Former Pac-12 Chief Operating Officer

National Leadership Council

Jamie Zaninovich in 2014 joined the Pac-12 Conference after six-plus years as Commissioner of the West Coast Conference.

There, he led the conference through a period of unprecedented growth, with the addition of Brigham Young University and the return of the University of the Pacific to the West Coast Conference membership - the conference's first membership additions since 1979.

Zaninovich, who was appointed to the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Committee in 2011-12 and is a Past Chair of the Division I Collegiate Commissioners Association Division I Subdivision, also helped create a partnership with the Pacific-12 and Big West conferences on men's and women's basketball officiating training and evaluation programs with the addition of Dave Libbey and Violet Palmer as the conference's coordinators of basketball officials. Zaninovich is also a founding member of the Board of Managers and Competition Committee of the Men's College Basketball Officiating (MCBO), L.L.C. and a past member of the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics.

During his tenure, Zaninovich has overseen a successful transition for the conference basketball championships to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. The event has set tournament records for revenue, total attendance and single game attendance, and will remain at the Orleans through 2016 after Zaninovich negotiated a three-year extension with the facility that was announced during the 2013 tournament.

Named one of the prestigious "40 Under 40" honorees by the Sports Business Journal in 2010, Zaninovich has also brought forward television advances that have showcased the conference's brand regionally and nationally. Zaninovich has forged long-term agreements with ESPN, Time Warner Cable SportsNet, Comcast SportsNet, and ROOT Sports to bring WCC basketball into more television homes than ever before.

This past season, the new West Coast Conference Game of the Week showcased WCC men's basketball across the conference's entire geographic footprint. The game was part of expanded coverage that featured a weekly half-hour television show dedicated to WCC sports.

Under Zaninovich's guidance, the West Coast Conference launched its own digital platform, TheW.tv, the home for WCC sports action on both linear television and in the digital space for the 2013-14 season. Powered by Campus Insiders, TheW.tv delivers live WCC regular season games, studio programming throughout the year, and exclusive live coverage from every WCC championship free of charge.

Zaninovich's tenure at the West Coast Conference has been highlighted by a five-year strategic plan (2010-14) focused on three high-level strategic goals for the WCC - competitiveness, exposure and leadership - which includes implementation of men's basketball non-conference scheduling and performance strategies, a conference-wide video streaming enhancement program, approval of a Sportsmanship Initiative, the launch of a new conference mark, and continued commitment to activation of the WCC voice within the NCAA governance structure.

Zaninovich, who was selected to lead the conference by the league's school presidents, previously served as the Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations at Princeton University. Prior to Princeton, Zaninovich spent two years as Senior Assistant Athletic Director for Strategic Planning and Men's Basketball Operations at Stanford after earning his MBA from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in 2001. Zaninovich was appointed to the advisory committee for Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) in January of 2014, marking a return to the organization. During graduate school, Zaninovich served as a "Board Fellow" for PCA.

Zaninovich, his wife Karen, and sons Max (7) and Lucas (5), reside in Millbrae, Calif. Zaninovich enjoys coaching youth sports in his spare time.