In a significant club announcement on Wednesday morning, Seattle Sounders FC unveiled sports business leader and former financial executive Peter Tomozawa as the club’s President of Business Operations. Alongside wife Donna LeDuc, Tomozawa is also joining Seattle’s Ownership Group, making the pair the 12th family to become part of the Rave Green’s newest group of partners, following last week’s announcement that saw the Ownership team expand significantly. Combining nearly 30 years of expertise in the financial and public sectors, along with several leadership roles in sports business, Tomozawa brings a wealth of experience to Sounders FC.
With this news, Tomozawa assumes oversight of all departments within Sounders FC’s business operations team at Pioneer Square, mirroring the club’s structure on the soccer side of the organization under General Manager & President of Soccer Garth Lagerwey. Both Tomozawa and Lagerwey report into Sounders FC Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer.
Most recently serving as Vice President & Executive Director for Partnerships and Board Relations for Los Angeles’ successful bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, Tomozawa is no stranger to the sports and entertainment worlds. In addition to being a minority owner in the Vegas Golden Knights – the National Hockey League’s successful franchise that launched in 2017 – Tomozawa also maintains ownership stakes in two historic clubs in the English Football League Championship: Swansea City and Barnsley. Additionally, Tomozawa previously served as a partner and Global Head of Foreign Exchange Sales at Goldman Sachs, where he worked for 17 years, before transitioning into civic affairs for the state of Hawaii. In the latter role, Tomozawa served as Executive Director of Business Development & Advisor to the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, in addition to working as Vice Chair & Commissioner of Charter Schools for the State of Hawaii Department of Education.
“Following last week’s historic news, we are very excited to officially reveal Peter and Donna’s involvement in our new Ownership Group. Like our other partners, they care deeply about Seattle and bring a vast array of experience that our club will benefit from,” said Sounders FC Majority Owner Adrian Hanauer. “As part of the process surrounding the formation of our new Ownership Group, we thoughtfully considered who would be the right person to take our club forward into this pivotal new era of Sounders history. In working alongside Peter, it became immediately clear that we already had that person working on our behalf. Peter’s high level of integrity, people-first approach and vast experience across multiple industries immediately make our club stronger from a leadership perspective. He has already gotten to know our Pioneer Square staff over the past several weeks, and his diverse background in finance, government affairs and sports business is a welcome asset to the organization. In the days and weeks ahead, I am excited for him to get to know the broader Sounders family in our community.”
“I have long been an admirer of this proud organization that boasts the most passionate fans in Major League Soccer and a playing culture that is truly inspiring,” said Tomozawa. “What I love about this team is its never-say-die attitude. It’s a philosophy that starts with Adrian Hanauer, and has been upheld by Garth Lagerwey, Brian Schmetzer and our players each and every week. That energy and grit is what drew me to this organization in the first place, and now joining the club in my new role, I am so honored to become a steward of that culture. On behalf of all our new partners, it is a privilege to be a part of this Sounders family, and I look forward to helping grow the club that we are all so passionate about.”
In Tomozawa’s new role as President of Business Operations, he is set to oversee all of Sounders FC’s business departments, inclusive of administration, legal, finance, business operations, marketing, communications, broadcast, community outreach, fan experience, membership engagement and customer service, ticket sales and operations, premium sales, hospitality and corporate partnerships. He is supported by the club’s existing senior leadership team.
Tomozawa brings a rich and diverse background to Sounders FC, with a wealth of experience gleaned from years in technology, finance, government affairs and sports. With a B.A. from the University of Michigan and M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Tomozawa began his career in the technology sector before joining Goldman Sachs in 1993. He spent 17 years at Goldman, eventually serving as Global Head of Foreign Exchange Sales, where he managed the distribution of foreign exchange products and was responsible for the product management and distribution of the firm’s foreign exchange electronic trading platform. In this role, he served Goldman in various locations around the globe, living in New York City, Tokyo and London. Additionally, Tomozawa was a member of the Federal Reserve Bank Foreign Exchange Committee as well as a board member of CLSAS, a foreign exchange trade aggregation service company. To this day, he continues to consult for the International Monetary Fund.
Following his retirement from Goldman Sachs, Tomozawa turned his skills toward other passions, utilizing his knowledge of financial markets and investment strategy to serve the state of Hawaii as its Department of Education Charter School Commissioner while also advising the Mayor of the City and County of Honolulu as Executive Director of Business Development. In that role, Tomozawa led negotiations of a financing agreement for a $6 billion rail project, selected vendors for the city’s short-term borrowing and helped administer its Park Improvement Plan.
In 2016, Tomozawa was selected by the LA 2024 / LA 2028 Exploratory Committee – bidding to bring the Olympic Games to Los Angeles – as Vice President & Executive Director of Partnerships and Board Relations, where he managed relationships with institutional partners and board members as the bid committee put forth its low-risk, high-tech and sustainable Games plan. The work of Tomozawa and his colleagues came to fruition, as Los Angeles was selected to host the 2028 Olympic Games
In a major club announcement on August 13, Seattle Sounders FC opened a new era in its storied 45-year history, as the organization unveiled 11 new families that are joining the club’s Ownership Group. Representing a diverse array of backgrounds and experiences, all 11 families have direct ties to Seattle, bringing a wealth of expertise to the Rave Green in sports, entertainment, technology, broadcast, finance and many other fields. Tomozawa and LeDuc are the 12th family to join this new group, alongside existing Sounders FC Owners Adrian Hanauer, Drew Carey, Jody Allen, Paul Barry and Lenore Hanauer. As part of last week’s news, founding partner Joe Roth announced his departure from the club. A leader behind Seattle’s successful 2007 MLS expansion bid and the team’s 2009 launch that saw Seattle set a new standard for soccer support in North America, Roth was instrumental with his ambition and vision, helping to lay the foundation of a club that has won more matches than any other team in MLS over the past 10 seasons.
