Dave Mingey '88: Olympics Are a Unifier that the World Needed

Dave Mingey '88 had quite the summer. As Senior Vice President for US Olympic and Paralympic Properties, he was active with Team USA at the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, returning to the U.S. just a few weeks ago. He also witnessed the unifying power of the event at a time when our world so desperately needed it. 

“The Olympic Games are a massive commercial endeavor, but what’s arguably more important is the fact that the event is the world’s largest group hug — it’s the most tangible experience we have as humanity to remind us that we are much better striving to come together than to push apart,” Mingey says. “It’s a magical experience going through the Athletes Village during the Games, and seeing these incredibly talented athletes and representatives of their various countries mingling and living together. For instance, over my time I have seen plenty of Israelis and Palestinians sit at the lunch table and eat together. That is very powerful.”

Mingey grew up in Drexel Hill and attended St. Bernadette School. The influence of his uncle Dick Kelly '50 played a significant role in his life and ultimately led Mingey and second oldest brother, Rich '80, to attend the Prep themselves. “As it has for legions of others, the Prep fundamentally changed our lives for the better,” he says. 

During his time at the Prep, Mingey participated in a variety of activities — including football, crew, intramurals, and Fr. Vincent Taggart, S.J.’s photography club, among others. In both his activities and in the classroom, Mingey was impacted by a number of Prep legends. “I was greatly influenced by Fr. Don Ward, S.J. ’56, who showed me what it meant to be a person for others and offered us the opportunity to think about the world outside the walls of the Prep,” he recalls. “I was inspired by the endless energy of Frank Raffa and his commitment to education and mentorship. In our principal, Dan Brennan, we saw a leader who was not only competent, but who truly cared. He held such significant responsibility in his role, yet could sit down at a lunch table and chat with a freshman or sophomore. He showed us what it meant to be a leader. The list of mentors is endless — Al Zimmerman '73, and great Jesuits like Fr. Taggart, S.J. and Fr. Joe Michini, S.J. — I could go on for hours.”

After the Prep, Mingey continued his Jesuit education at Boston College. “There was something special about the Ignatian ideals, the academic rigor, the city of Boston, and the BC culture; plus I was also joined by 13 or 14 of my Prep classmates,” Mingey explains. “I absolutely loved my experience at Boston College.”

 

His experience at Boston College led Mingey to join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps following graduation. He was assigned to work with homeless children in Portland and Seattle as part of the Pacific Northwest’s first family shelter built entirely by private funding. “My time with JVC not only gave me great experience in social advocacy, but it also gave me valuable insights into operating a business and understanding its finances. It was really the best of both worlds in terms of training — all through the lens of the Ignatian commitment to social justice,” Mingey says.

Following his JVC year, Mingey accepted a job at Sports Illustrated and began a successful career in the sports marketing industry, including stops at Nike, Sirius XM Radio, Johnson & Johnson, Pepsi, and a stint as a communications advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Youth and Sport as the country worked to rebuild its sport programs, including a return to the Olympic Games in 2004. 

The transition from JVC to sports business was fueled in part by a lesson learned from his older brothers and sisters. “Through their own career paths, they taught me early on that it was very important to have a passion for earning your paycheck and that you’ll be successful in any career if you love what you do,” Mingey recalls. “Unfortunately today, I think people often have the ratio inverted. Jobs become our identities and social currency. People work simply to afford a certain way of life.” Mingey has found himself on the opposite side of this dilemma, combining his love of sports with his commitment to helping others. “I’m a firm believer that sport, as Nelson Mandela said so eloquently, has the power to change the world. There are so few things that can unite so many diverse audiences like sport can.”

After leaving Pepsi, Mingey became the president and founding partner of GlideSlope, a management advising firm focused solely on global sport. The company was eventually acquired by CSM Sport & Entertainment, where Mingey remained a Managing Director until 2019. It was then that he took his current position as Senior Vice President of Commercial Partnerships for United States Olympic and Paralympic Properties. “The chance to work on delivering the Summer Olympic Games back to the U.S. more than 30 years after Atlanta and to be one of the architects to modernize the Olympic and Paralympic movement in this country was a phenomenal opportunity I couldn’t pass up,” he says.

In his role, Mingey oversees the corporate partnerships that provide the majority of the revenue required to support Team USA. “From the sports administrative side, we have been focusing on the overall well-being of the athletes and ensuring they have the resources they need to succeed on all levels,” he says. “We’re also working to make Team USA a more magnetic brand even in non-Olympic or Paralympic years. While the Games are on, we connect with Americans more than any other sport, but Team USA tends to lose fan engagement when it’s not competing.” Additionally, Mingey is tasked with helping raise $2.5 billion of the roughly $6.8 billion budget for the LA 2028 Games. Financing Team USA and LA 2028 requires Mingey and his team to cultivate and maintain relationships with global commercial business partners and serve as consultants to optimize their sponsors’ Olympic and Paralympic activations.

In reflecting on this summer’s Olympic Games, Mingey applauded Paris for incorporating its many iconic cultural sites and the spectacular opening ceremony. Amidst all the magical moments, the most meaningful to Mingey was being able to be joined at the Games by his wife, Darby, and their three children, for the kids’ first Olympics experience. 

Looking ahead, the 2028 Games in Los Angeles are going to be a remarkable feat for organizers. “That summer we'll put on the equivalent of 7 Super Bowls per day for 17 days in a row. Then we switch over the venues and welcome the Paralympic world,” Mingey explains. 

Los Angeles has hosted the Olympics twice before, but 2028 will be the first time the city has hosted the Paralympic Games. “We feel a tremendous responsibility to really energize this country in terms of the power of para sport and what it means to showcase elite athletes who are differently abled,” Mingey says.

Similar to Paris 2024, Mingey and his team aim to showcase the unique Southern Californian lifestyle, culture, diversity, and unifying forces that encapsulate so much of the American identity.