Kelly Kozole

Kelly Kozole, now in her 19th year with the Lions organization, has been senior vice president of business development since 2016. She oversees events, marketing, corporate partnerships, ticketing, retail merchandising, new media, business analytics, community relations and the football education divisions of the Lions organization. Kozole also manages the relationship with the team's official food and beverage partner, Levy Restaurants, and is an officer for Detroit Lions Charities.

Under Kozole's tenure the Detroit Lions business operations have grown exponentially, with a focus on improving the comprehensive Lions fan experience including a rebrand, enhanced gameday and training camp features, the addition of the Detroit Lions Cheerleaders and a $100 million investment in Ford Field.

In Kozole's first year as the senior vice president of business development, she concentrated on fan feedback to create the DTE Energy Power Hour as an early arrival incentive with food and beverage specials, new activations around the stadium and giveaways, as well as the improvement of fan and traffic communications, all of which have been recognized as an NFL Best Practice.

Kozole led the unveil of the Lions Nike Vapor Untouchable uniforms after a full rebranding that began with the team introducing an updated logo, new logotype and a new proprietary font in 2017. In that same offseason, the team completed an aggressive timeline of updates to The New Ford Field that included larger videoboards, an upgraded sound system, as well as renovated stadium suites and premium club areas, again with the fan experience in mind.

After joining the Detroit Lions in 2002 as Vice President of Events, Kozole has led DLI Entertainment, the team's entertainment division, for the past 16 years. She has secured and promoted many large-scale shows and events at Ford Field, including 10 sold-out Kenny Chesney concerts, three sold-out Taylor Swift concerts, the 2003 Basketbowl, WrestleMania 23, 2008 NCAA Men's Basketball Regionals, 2009 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four and the 2010 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Frozen Four. Kozole also implemented and oversees the Quick Lane Bowl, the annual college football bowl game held at Ford Field.

In 2019 Kozole and her husband founded Don't Forget Morgan, a 501 c3 foundation created to help their daughter and other children with the rare disease BPAN. The goal is to raise awareness as well as financial support to begin research to find a cure for this extremely rare genetic disease.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Kozole resides in Troy, Mich. with her husband and children, Morgan and Connor.