One of the youngest team presidents in the history of major league baseball, 33-year-old Matt Silverman is in his fifth year of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Under his direction, the Rays have been revitalized, recognized as one of the best-run teams in all of sports and last year were selected by ESPN as the most affordable fan experience in all of professional sports. One of Silverman's most notable achievements was making Tropicana Field family-friendly at the same time he was leading the Rays to the 2008 World Series and enabling the club to post its first back-toback winning seasons.

After experiencing nine last-place finishes in their first 10 seasons, the Rays 181 wins the past two seasons are fifth most in the majors. Home attendance has increased every season under Silverman and the team's 2009 mark of 1,874,962 was the second highest in franchise history behind the Rays 1998 inaugural season.

The team's rebranding efforts prior to the 2008 season included a new team name, colors and uniforms and have produced the major leagues' largest increase in retail sales. By all possible measurements, from all-time-high television and radio ratings to a surge in team website traffic, the organization's objective to expand its regional reach and become a regional standard bearer is being realized.

To build this regional presence, Silverman decided early on to do things a little differently both on and off the field. On the field, in 2007 and 2008, he relocated a series of regular season games to the Disney Sports Complex in Orlando, expanding the team's reach across Central Florida. And in 2009, the team opened its first spring training camp at Charlotte Sports Park, a state-of-the-art facility that has drawn glowing reviews and given the Rays a year-round presence in the southern part of its region along Florida's Gulf Coast.

In their first year in Charlotte County, the Rays set the franchise spring training attendance record and sold out eight of 16 home games. While spring training attendance around major league baseball was down 11 percent from the previous spring, the Rays attendance increased 30 percent.

Off the field, Silverman's emphasis on improving customer service and the fan experience have reinforced with even the casual fan that things have changed. Major capital improvements to Tropicana Field and a refreshed commitment to improving staff preparation and training has greatly enhanced the Rays gameday experience. And the team's charitable work through the Rays Baseball Foundation has invested more than $1.2 million into the Tampa Bay region over the past two years and brought the team and the community even closer together.

Silverman also serves as the president of the Sunburst Entertainment Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Rays, which serves as a vehicle to attract events to Tropicana Field. Sunburst provides consulting services to industry partners and enables the Rays organization to make investments in other sports and entertainmentrelated business opportunities.

Prior to joining the Rays, Silverman worked closely with Principal Owner Stuart Sternberg at Goldman Sachs and orchestrated Sternberg's purchase of controlling interest in the franchise. The partnership and friendship that first developed on Wall Street has now found its way to Tampa Bay and directed the Rays triumphant last-place-to-World Series season in 2008.

In January 2009, Street & Smith's Sports Business Journal named Silverman to its 2009 "Forty Under 40" list honoring accomplished and promising sports executives under age 40.

A lifelong baseball fan, Silverman also enjoys running and writing. The Dallas native holds a bachelor of economics degree from Harvard University. He is a member of the board of the Rays Baseball Foundation, the Hillsborough Education Foundation, and Starting Right, Now. He also serves as chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership's Council of Governors.