Tune into SMilesTV with the host, Stephanie Anthony Miles
Nominated and confirmed for his first notable board at age 21 for the Arizona Board of Regents, Vada O. Manager has long been respected as a premier strategist and businessperson. Before forming the diversified Manager Global Holdings LLC (which includes Manager Global Consulting Group LLC), Vada served as Senior Director of Global Issues Management for NIKE, Inc. with direct and virtual management responsibilities in the following areas: NIKE’s global sourcing procedures, brand/marketing communications support for NIKE’s subsidiaries, litigation support and athlete/product/corporate crisis management.

In assisting the company’s global growth plans, Vada provided consultation to several of the company’s key initiatives for online commerce and M&A transactions such as the Starter and Converse brands. During his 12-year tenure, Nike’s revenues grew from $6 billion to $18 billion. Vada was also promoted, joining NIKE’s Corporate Leadership Team – the company’s most highly valued team of senior global leaders. During 2020, he joined colleagues as a Principal Strategist/board member of Think TRUE, a diverse multi-cultural marketing agency, incubated by OBE. 

Before joining NIKE in 1997, Vada served in a very similar capacity with the executive team at Levi Strauss & Co.’s Global Headquarters in San Francisco. Vada also served as a Vice President of prominent Washington, D.C.-based consultancy — Powell Tate (now Weber Shandwick). While at the firm, Manager led a team to South Africa to assist in transition consulting with the newly elected administration of President Nelson Mandela.  

Manager has an extensive background in business strategy and sports/corporate/brand communications. His past professional affiliations and/or institutional clients include former Secretary of the Interior and Arizona Governor Bruce Babbitt, Governor Rose Mofford, Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly (Washington, D.C.); Major League Baseball and the PGA TOUR.  He also served as Vice President of Public Finance for investment banking firm YS&P (now Wedbush Securities). At present, he simultaneously holds a Senior Counselor title at the Washington, DC-based firm APCO Worldwide where he led a client team based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.  Manager also serves as a corporate director for Valvoline Inc. where he worked alongside his board peers/C-Suite in achieving the successful IPO/corporate spin from Fortune 500 specialty chemical company Ashland Inc. creating two value-creating companies. The 2016 Valvoline spin was illustrative of approximately $6.5 billion of ongoing, transformative M&A for Ashland. Manager was chair of the Governance & Nominating Committee; served on both Audit and Compensation. He also serves as Finance Chair/board director for the Helios Education Foundation, the Foresight Foundation for Economic Equity, Genesis City (AZ). 

In 2020, Directors & Boards Magazine named him a “Director to Watch”. In 2022, the venerable Arizona Informant newspaper also named Manager among its “AZI Power 50” – featuring influential citizens. 

A native of E. St. Louis, IL. Manager is a Hall of Fame alumnus of Arizona State University (B.Sc., political science, “The College”) and was selected as an ASU Trustee in 2019. Vada also performed postgraduate (non-degree) study at the London School of Economics. A frequent presenter about corporate strategy/issues, he has also appeared on CNN, CNBC, ESPN, ABC’s Nightline, NBC’s “Today Show” Sports Business Journal, etc. 

Vada is also a member of the Sports PR Summit Steering Committee, where he also received the Lifetime Achievement Award (May 2022).  In September 2022, women’s leadership organization “Take The Lead” also bestowed its inaugural Alexander Barbanell “Leading Man” Award upon Manager for his mentoring of women in their careers and corporate boards..  

 Manager as a trusted advisor to multiple organizations: American Council on Germany; U.S. Military Academy (West Point), (Chair 2008-2019); the Issue Management Council (Chair 2007-2009). Manager also agreed to serve as a senior professional advisor on the teams administering the Democratic National Convention and non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates.  


Tune in, FRIDAY, December 9th, 2022 @6:30pm to the Rebroadcast of “SmilesTV” right here on Dynasty Television! dynastytelevisionmediaportal.com