Jim Rocco
Managing Director, PRCG | Sports
Jim Rocco is Managing Director of PRCG | Sports. Jim has a broad background in sports marketing, branding and public relations. He is also active in crisis communications in sports and entertainment matters and is an accomplished sales professional.
Jim’s experience includes more than 15 years at HBO Sports where he implemented marketing strategies for live boxing programming, documentaries, and studio shows such as On The Record With Bob Costas, Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Inside the NFL, and Hard Knocks. He coordinated with HBO’s internal creative team and outside agencies to create sports marketing, branding and promotional materials. Jim also served as a talent coordinator for HBO Sports where he handled the arrangements for appearances and promotional shoots.
Jim served as Director of Marketing at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, one of the premier sports and entertainment destinations in the tri-state area. In that role, he devised innovative sports marketing campaigns for a variety of events, including boxing matches and college basketball tournaments such as the Men’s NCAA basketball tournament and the ACC Championship. He negotiated with boxing promoters and the commissioners of athletic conferences, and also coordinated public relations and paid media efforts.
For the last several years, Jim has been responsible for the acquisition, development and management of sports industry business for PRCG | Sports. He is the co-author of the book, “Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy”, designed to help communications professionals and students better understand the unique aspects of managing crises in the sports world. Jim is also the host and content creator for the “Crisis Communications in Sports” podcast which features interviews with luminaries from across the sports landscape who share their insights on developing stories and trends.
Cristopher Bruce
Senior Account Executive
Cris Bruce is a Senior Account Executive at PRCG | Haggerty LLC and its sports brand, PRCG | Sports. He is also a producer of the PRCG | Sports podcast, “Crisis Communications in Sports,” which features in-depth interviews with some of the top newsmakers in the sports industry.
Cris has a background in politics, fundraising and city government, beginning his career as an assistant to Mayor Kate Gallego of Phoenix, Arizona. He went on to become Finance Associate at Angerholzer Broz Consulting, where he developed and fostered relationships with corporations, unions, trade associations, and other organizations. Early in his career, he worked on the Philadelphia-area congressional campaign of Scott Wallace, and as a canvasser for PennEnvironment. An avid sports fan, he was also an intern at War Room Sports, where he created social media strategies and content for sports platforms.
Cris holds a B.S. in Political Science from Arizona State University, with a minor in Communications.
James F. Haggerty
President and CEO
James F. Haggerty, President and CEO of PRCG | Haggerty and PRCG | Sports, is an attorney, author and communications professional with more than thirty years of experience counseling and executing communications programs for corporate, nonprofit and individual clients. Jim is frequently called upon as a trusted advisor in all manner of sensitive domestic and international issues. In sports-related fields, he works for individuals and brands in a range of strategic communications work, including with matters related to NCAA investigations, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL), and other issues.
In the area of sensitive reputation management issues, Jim is considered one of the nation’s foremost experts. He has been repeatedly named by Chambers & Partners, the prestigious international directory, as one of the top communications professionals in the United States, a “powerhouse” who “thinks on a different level,” bringing a “double barrel of legal and media experience” to his work. In 2023 Jim was named by Business Insider as one of “18 top public-relations experts CEOs scramble to hire in a crisis.”
In 2022, Jim was elected President of the Reputation Advisors International, a worldwide association of senior communications professionals in 16 cities across the globe. He is the author of several books on communications topics and also serves at an Adjunct Law Professor at Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg, Florida.