Press Release:
Top Female Sports Executive, Lisa Pantages of the San Francisco Giants, Named FWSF 2024 Financial Woman of the Year
Organization’s top award recognizes exceptional women leaders in finance and financial services.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 8, 2024
Financial Women of San Francisco (FWSF) today named Lisa Pantages as the FWSF 2024 Financial Woman of the Year. Ms. Pantages is the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the San Francisco Giants. FWSF is particularly excited to award the organization’s highest honor to a female sports executive, a sector which FWSF has not previously recognized. When she assumed her role as CFO, Lisa became the first woman to ever hold the position at the Giants and one of just a few in all of Major League Baseball. The San Francisco Giants are one of the oldest and most successful teams in Major League Baseball history, with more wins than any team in the history of major American sports. Lisa is not only a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan, she is now in her 22nd season working in the Giants organization and was named its Chief Financial Officer in 2013.
In addition to her role as the CFO of the Giants organization, she also serves as the Treasurer of the Giants Community Fund, an organization dedicated to using baseball and softball to promote health, education, and character development to propel youth in underserved regions to be positive forces in their communities. Lisa has, throughout her career, dedicated herself to mentoring, advancing, and honoring others in the organizations in which she has worked. During her tenure at Deloitte, she created and led the creation of the career development function for its audit practice to support career advancement and growth of her colleagues. She also demonstrates her unwavering support of youth throughout the Bay Area in her work with the Giants Community Fund. Lisa’s efforts in support of the next generation of leaders particularly resonates with FWSF which has, since 1985, been providing scholarships to San Francisco Bay Area women studying at colleges and universities across the Bay Area.
Lisa also shared her perspective on the importance of mentorship. “I’ve always had great mentors in my career at Deloitte and at the San Francisco Giants who were instrumental in my success. I believe that when you get good advice and guidance, it’s your responsibility to pass it along. At Deloitte, I had the opportunity to help train, teach and influence women who would become leaders of the future. At the Giants, I’ve been able to continue mentoring and advising my colleagues as well as interns and college and high school students on their career paths and opportunities in Finance and related areas,” she explained.
Sue English Mazzetti, FWSF’s 2024 President and a Co-founder and Partner at Quorum Private Wealth, also shared her excitement regarding the FWSF’s 2024 honoree, “Lisa Pantages’ decades of providing leadership and mentorship to the Bay Area’s financial community completely aligns to Financial Women of San Francisco’s mission of paying it forward to the next generation of female leaders. Her exceptional professional success as a female leader in the Giants' organization, her passion for mentoring and supporting other women, and volunteerism as Treasurer of the Giants Community Fund, demonstrate Lisa’s passion for lifting the community around her. We are thrilled to recognize Lisa’s accomplishments by honoring her as our Financial Woman of the Year.”
“I’m so thankful for this recognition from the Financial Women of San Francisco. I never expected to be able to combine my passion for Finance with my love of the game of baseball. It’s certainly not something for which I ever expected to be honored. But this honor reinforces the importance of continuing to mentor and give back by paying it forward,” Lisa said.
Former colleagues describe Lisa as a bundle of positive energy that absolutely lights up a room when she enters it. FWSF welcomes the Bay Area community to attend the celebration and luncheon honoring Lisa which will take place on Wednesday, September 18th, 2024. It will be a wonderful opportunity to gather to honor a leader who has quietly been supporting others and making a significant difference across our Bay Area community for many years. She might even share some of her amazing photographs of the Giants, her Mission Bay neighborhood walks, and other adventures with us.
The Financial Woman of the Year award was established in 1996 to celebrate the organization’s 40th anniversary. Past FWSF Presidents Leslie Miller and Shelly Porges created the Financial Woman of the Year event with the triple purposes of raising funds for the FWSF’s scholarship program, increasing awareness of FWSF, and honoring the careers of senior leaders in finance. Since then, it has provided a platform for high-achieving honorees to share their professional experience with others and to inspire other women in their own careers and ambitions. Lisa joins a distinguished list of former honorees including Teresa Bryce Bazemore, President and CEO of FHLBank of San Francisco, Nancy Pfund, Founder and Managing Partner of DBL Partners; Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton; Terri Kallsen, Chief Operating Officer at Wealth Enhancement Group; Heidi Roizen, Partner at Threshold Ventures; Robin Washington, former chief financial officer (CFO) of Gilead; Debbie Messemer, former managing partner of KPMG’s Bay Area Market; Carrie Dolan, CFO of Kraken Digital Asset Exchange; Sarah Friar, CEO of Next Door and former CFO of Square; and Pat Yarrington, former CFO of Chevron.
About Lisa Pantages
Lisa Pantages has served as the Chief Financial Officer of the San Francisco Giants since 2013, overseeing the finances, long-term planning, banking and cash management, procurement, and office operations of the organization. She joined the franchise in 2003 as Vice President of Finance and Controller responsible for the daily financial and reporting operations of the club, the privately-owned ballpark, and its affiliated companies, including all general accounting activities, financial reporting, budgets, and payroll.
When Pantages assumed her role as CFO, she became the first woman to ever hold the position at the Giants and one of just a few and the first in all of Major League Baseball. Pantages’ 37-year career in accounting, audit, and finance spans over many industries. She began her career with Deloitte & Touche where she spent 16 years in the Audit and Accounting Practice. During her more than two decades at Deloitte, she worked with public and private companies in banking, mutual funds, technology, and sports. She spent her last four years at Deloitte creating and leading a Career Development function for its audit practice in Northern California and Hawaii. Pantages was an integral part of the Deloitte team that assisted Giants Managing General Partner Peter Magowan and his investor group purchase the Giants and keep them in San Francisco. She also served as a volunteer on the Giants’ “Yes on B” campaign to build the club’s new ballpark at China Basin, reporting campaign finances.
The fourth generation San Francisco native earned both a bachelor’s degree in business administration/accounting and an MBA in Finance from San Francisco State University. Pantages was a founding member of Momentum, the Giants women’s employee resource group, and serves as a mentor and resource to many colleagues, especially other women in finance. She currently serves on the board of the Giants Community Fund as the Treasurer overseeing the financial operations of the Fund. Pantages previously served as the Audit Committee Chairperson at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito for 10 years.
About the San Francisco Giants
One of the oldest teams in Major League Baseball, the 141-year-old franchise moved to San Francisco from New York in 1958. After playing a total of 42 years in Seals Stadium and Candlestick Park, the team moved to the privately constructed, downtown ballpark on the corner of 3rd and King in 2000. The organization is widely recognized for its innovative business practices and baseball excellence having been named in the past decade the Sports Organization of the Year by Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal, Organization of the Year by Baseball America and ESPN’s Sports Humanitarian Team of the Year. Oracle Park is also the only ballpark in the country to have earned Silver, Gold and Platinum LEED certification for an existing building.
Since opening its gates, Oracle Park has become internationally-renowned as a premier venue in the world of both sports and entertainment. On the diamond, more than 66 million spectators have witnessed countless magical moments, including three World Series Championships (2010, 2012 & 2014), the raising of four National League Pennants and eight playoff appearances. The ballpark has also hosted some of music’s biggest acts, including Dead & Company, Lady Gaga, Beyoncé & Jay-Z, Ed Sheeran, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Green Day and Billy Joel.
About the Giants Community Fund
The Giants Community Fund uses baseball and softball to promote health, education and character development to propel youth in underserved regions to be positive forces in their communities. The Fund, a 501(c)(3) public charity, is managed by a volunteer Board of Directors and sustained by contributions from individuals, businesses and foundations through a number of special partnerships and fundraisers. Through an extended program model, the Fund now serves 35,000 youth annually. Since its inception in 1991, the Fund has donated $44 million to community efforts.
For additional information on the Giants Community Fund, visit giantscommunityfund.org and follow on social media - X | Instagram | Facebook | LinkedIn.
About Financial Women of San Francisco
The Financial Women of San Francisco seeks to advance the success of women in finance and financial services and to be a source of insight and inspiration to financial women executives and managers throughout the Bay Area. In addition to FWSF’s professional organization focused on advancing women, since 1985, the FWSF Scholarship Fund (a 501(c)3 organization) has awarded more than $3.0 million in scholarship grants to more than 325 Bay Area women. Beyond financial support, FWSF scholarship recipients are mentored by FWSF members, become members of the organization, and attend career development and networking events.