Peter Wilt

President/CEO

PH: 414-224-9283

Peter J. Wilt has earned championship rings and record business growth for professional soccer teams in three different American soccer leagues. Most recently he has served as President, CEO and Co-Owner of Women’s professional Soccer’s Chicago Red Stars. He is most well known as the founding general manager and long time president of Major League Soccer’s Chicago Fire where his teams set attendance and corporate sponsorship records, while earning an MLS Cup, a Supporters Shield and three US Open Cup Championships under his leadership. Wilt also led efforts to develop TOYOTA PARK, the first 100% publicly funded soccer stadium in Major League Soccer. Wilt has worked for more than 25 years in professional sports, including the last 20 years in professional soccer. While still in college, Wilt wrote for UPI's Milwaukee bureau covering the Milwaukee Bucks and Marquette University basketball teams. He also worked for the Milwaukee Brewers for five years as an usher and ticket taker before joining the International Hockey League's Milwaukee Admirals in sales, marketing and public relations. He broke into soccer in 1987 with the Milwaukee Wave. While serving as the Wave’s Director of Marketing and Publicity, the team more than tripled its sponsorship revenue and its average attendance which grew from 2,300 per game when he began in 1986-87 to more than 8,900 per game when he left in December, 1990 to become General Manager of the rival Chicago Power. In 1994 Wilt moved outdoors with the A-League's Minnesota Thunder, where he was team President, GM and co-owner. Wilt has served on the United States Soccer Federation Board of Directors and on the A-League Executive Committee. He was Chairman of the A-League and USISL Marketing Committees as well as National Director of Sales and Marketing for the Continental Indoor Soccer League and two stints as Director of Media Relations for the NPSL. Wilt was the founding President of the FireWorks For Kids Foundation and the Chicago Red Stars Charitable Foundation and he also served as President of the non-profit Minnesota Thunder Youth Development Organization. He worked with 1990 U.S. World Cup player Jimmy Banks to launch Banks' inner city soccer program, which has served Milwaukee youth since 1988. Wilt has also served on the boards of America SCORES Milwaukee, the Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation and he has volunteered for Peace Action Wisconsin. Wilt is a member of the Illinois Soccer Hall of Fame, the Marian Central Athletic Hall of Fame, the Farnese Hall of Fame and the Chicago Fire’s Ring of Fire. In 1998, Wilt was named MLS's Executive of the Year and Northwest Herald Sportsman of the Year. He was named the Naperville Person of the Year by the Daily Herald in 2002. Wilt, a native of McHenry, Illinois, and his wife Ann are graduates of Marquette University and reside in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin.