From dinner table to board room

In my opinion, every NFL team is a community asset and every president is a steward of that asset, here that is literal

GREEN BAY – If you’ve heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, you may start to believe that the Packers are heading into some successful seasons.

Incoming Green Bay Packers CEO Ed Policy is in the habit of making a vision a reality.

Policy is a native of Youngstown, Ohio, and his future was influenced at an early age when his dad became involved with the San Fransisco 49ers.

“I think I was eight years old. I grew up in Youngstown, which is about an hour outside of Cleveland. I was a Cleveland Browns fan at the time, and about two or three weeks after the DeBartolo family bought them — the DeBartolos, my dad was a lawyer and they were clients of his — I remember showing up at the dinner table with a Cleveland Browns jersey, and I remember he talked to me somewhat sternly to told me to tell me that that’s no longer happening in this house. We were 49ers fans going forward,” Policy recalled.

“It was terrific. It was an incredible education. I mean, we talked about the NFL and the business of the NFL and pro football every night at the dinner table. So it was great as I got a little bit older and began to understand some of the business things he was dealing with. I mean, to this day, I will tell you I rely on the lessons I’ve learned from him.”

That dinner-table education would later steer him toward a position in professional football.

“I would say it first started when I was definitely in high school. I had very significant thoughts about going in that direction,” Policy added.

He had two dream jobs in mind — running a team or league commissioner.

Policy graduated from the University of Notre Dame and Stanford University Law School.

He served nine years in executive leadership roles with the Arena Football League — including commissioner, president and CEO — and a year as an executive consultant with the NFL.

Policy joined the Packers as vice president/general counsel in August 2012 and was promoted to chief operating officer/general counsel in 2018.

He was recently elected to take on the role of president and CEO after Mark Murphy’s July 2025 retirement.

And, he believes that he has “three exceptional people doing an exceptional job” in General Manager Brian Gutekunst, Head Coach Matt LaFleur and Director of Football Operations Russ Ball — moving forward.

“What I see the president’s role being in this structure is to be kind of the chief facilitator. And I do think there has to be, and I am going to especially early on, kind of increase the amount and the time of formal meetings with football leadership, and we’ll make sure we’re doing that at least once a week. And my job will really be to facilitate that communication, to make sure they’re having all those conversations. I see the President’s role as it relates to football operations as really selecting football leadership, guiding them and giving them all the resources they need, and supporting them, evaluating them and then ultimately holding them accountable and, but really, I think it’s important to let them do their jobs. These are exceptional people, all three of them,” he said.
“I would not meddle in what they do. I would communicate very frequently and very openly and directly with them on all things. But certainly, no team needs two head coaches or two GMs, so not a lot of change in the way Mark had done that.”

Policy defined his role as having three purposes (in order of priority): to win football games, keep the Packers in Green Bay and to strengthen the community.

“No.1 is to win football games; we’ll do whatever it takes to win football games. If that means changing the structure then we’ll change the structure. Just like Mark was not wedded to the structure that he inherited when he came in, I would say that I am not wedded to the structure either. We’ll do whatever is best for the Packers,” Policy stated.

“So, our ultimate goal is obviously to win the Super Bowl, right? That’s the ultimate success, and that’s, it’s what we set out to do every year. You know, for me, that can’t be the only level of success that you’re striving for, because only one team is going to reach that out of 32 and I certainly wouldn’t characterize the other 31 as failures, and I certainly wouldn’t suggest that they should overreact to not having won the Super Bowl. I think for us, success is going to be putting ourselves in a position to get that ultimate success of winning the Super Bowl and improving and making progress, hopefully, from week to week.”

But, Policy also recognizes the team’s longtime significance to the local community.

“With Mark, in particular, I think recognizing the nexus between the Packers and the community. I think every NFL team, if you are running it properly, should have a strong connection between the community and the organization. In my opinion, every NFL team is a community asset and every president is a steward of that asset, here that is literal. I think it is more figurative everywhere else, here it’s literal and it’s more important,” Policy added.