The Minnesota Twins, an American professional baseball team, are aiming to increase their revenue. Teams like St. Louis, Colorado, and Milwaukee made more money than the Twins last season, according to Forbes’ ranking of the Most Valuable MLB Teams, with the Cardinals leading the way with $358 million in revenue.
According to Forbes, the Twins hired Meka White Morris two years ago, amidst declining income, with the goal of bringing in more money for the club. She was hired as the Minnesota Twins’ first chief revenue officer in 2021, making her one of the highest-ranking Black female executives in Major League Baseball.
“A chief revenue officer is to support all things revenue,” Morris told MSR in an interview. “We look at every place that the organization makes money. Is there a way to think outside of the box? Is there a way to maximize all opportunities from a revenue perspective?”
According to Forbes, she helped the Twins earn more than $260 million, up from $111 million in 2020 during the pandemic, while the club expects to exceed its previous year’s earnings of $297 million.Furthermore, since her hiring, Twins has recruited corporate partners such as United HealthCare and Evolv, a security firm, as well as increased a deal with US Bank.
Morris was selected for her current role because of her aggressive and impatient personality, which complemented the Pohlad family’s goal for the Minnesota Twins. Forbes stated that she received many of her characteristics from her father, Boston Celtics icon Jo Jo White, who helped the Celtics win two NBA titles.
In 2018, her father died. She attributes her competitive attitude to her father, who was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.
Morris worked as a corporate sale accountant for the Cleveland Cavaliers before joining the Minnesota Twins. Morris discovered her desire to compete as a sales accountant, and after leaving the Cavs, she worked with the Charlotte Hornets, Las Vegas Raiders, and entertainment organizations such as Live Nation and Legends, according to Forbes.
Morris is a Boston native who graduated from the University of Kansas with a B.S. in Journalism and Strategic Communications. She was a Jayhawks track and field athlete while at Kanas.
Following the police assassination of George Floyd, Minnesota became a focal point for social turmoil, and Morris almost refused to take on her role with the Twins. But she recognized that refusing it would be inconsistent with her personality.
“If you’re going to make real change in any facet of your life, you are going to have to jump in the fire and go into the lion’s den, so to speak,” she told Forbes. “If there was ever a place to make change, for people who look like me doing it in baseball, in Minnesota, I can’t think of a better combination of things that can drive real change for people of color and Black women in sports and entertainment.”
Following Floyd’s death, there were conversations about diversity in corporate America, and now, MLB has five C-suite executives at the club level, including Morris.
