Mark Washo is currenlty the President and General Manager of the Washington Freedom, members of the newly formed Women's Professional Soccer League (WPS).  As team President and General Manager, Mark directly manages all aspects of team business, plus oversees all technical aspects of the team.

Mark is also currently a sports management instructor with Sports Management Worldwide www.smww.com and hosts weekly Sports Marketing chats on Sunday or Monday nights.  All students and working professionals interested in a future career in sports are strongly encouraged to consider taking the Sports Management Course at www.SMWW.com.  The course is practical and "hands on", and Break Into Sports Through Ticket sales is required reading in the course.

Mark also recently joined the adjunct faculty of Georgetown University.  He teaches Sports Sales, Sponsorship and Licensing Graduate Sports Management Course.

Prior to working professionally for the Washington Freedom, Mark launched his own ticket sales consulting firm MMW Marketing.  During the Freedom's off-season, Mark is still able to work with a few select clients and continues to work on ticket sales development projects.  Mark has worked with various Universities and pro sports teams such as San Jose State, Ball State, Baylor, SMU, St. Louis Rams and DC United.

Previous to the Washington Freedom and MMW Marketing, Mark held the position of Executive Vice President of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club of MLS.  As the Executive Vice President, Mark had direct management supervision of Ticket Sales, Ticket Operations, Customer Service, Marketing, Community Relations and Public Relations. Mark was promoted to EVP from Senior VP of Sales and Marketing in early 2008.

Prior to joining the Chicago Fire, Mark was the Senior Vice President of the NY/NJ MetroStars. He was promoted to Senior Vice President of the MetroStars after serving as the teams Vice President of Ticket Sales for four consecutive seasons. Mark joined the MetroStars after spending the previous five seasons with D.C. United as the team's Senior Director of Ticket Sales.

Mark has seen success in every sports franchise that he has worked for. Under Mark's leadership, the Chicago Fire achieved the highest total ticket sales revenue in the history of the Fire in 2008, breaking all time sales records. This achievement includes all time highs in full season tickets, group tickets and total tickets sold.

While Mark was at the MetroStars, the club saw an 18% increase in season ticket revenue and he helped the team finish second in the league in total group sales. The MetroStars were recognized by MLS as the Ticket Sales Team of the year in 2001.

During the 2000 season while at D.C. United, Mark helped the D.C. United ticket sales team lead all MLS franchises in group sales and helped D.C. United win Major League Soccer's Team Ticketing Award in both 1999 and in 2000.

Prior to working with D.C. United, Mark also has previous ticket sales experience with the Washington Wizards (then the Bullets) as an Account Executive. While his time was short at the Bullets, Mark won the sales Rookie of the Month award in just his third month at the Washington Bullets. Prior to working at the Washington Bullets, Mark started his professional sports career in the Direct Marketing Department of the Buffalo Bison's minor league baseball team. While at the Bison's, Mark was the leading Direct Marketing sales representative for two consecutive selling seasons. Mark began his professional sales career selling life insurance products for a Berkshire Insurance agency in Buffalo New York. Mark Credits his success selling tickets for professional sports teams, to the professional sales experience he gained while working outside of the professional sports industry.

Mark's previous ticket sales experience and success gives him instant credibility for having the necessary knowledge to write his new book aimed at helping graduating college kids make an informed decision about entering the professional sports experience in ticket sales.