Pam Gardner, president of business operations for the Houston Astros, spoke to attendees of the Bauer College Alumni Association Monthly Networking Breakfast about one of the things she loves the most — leadership.
“Leadership is so important; I love the idea about development,” she said.
Gardner is the longest-tenured female chief executive in Major League Baseball.
“She is someone a lot of people look up to,” Trey Wilkinson, president of Select Asset Management, LLC, said.
Wilkinson has known Gardner for nearly 20 years — ever since she served as an intern with the Astros — and was in charge of getting her to the event.
“She is a trailblazer in a lot of ways — a visionary, a leader and a very positive person,” Wilkinson said.
For Gardner, being a woman and having this job does not seem odd.
Even though many people ask her how she feels about being a woman and having the job, for her it is the same.
“I feel the same way a man would feel,” she said.
Gardner described baseball in a way that made many in the audience laugh.
“The odds are good and the goods are odd,” she said, while stressing that the sport is entertainment, and working in entertainment is what she loves.
Gardner offered her audience the six most important things she has learned from heading team operations. This is that she always keeps in mind.
“Never say never, there is always a way to do things,” Gardner said.
“You don’t always know the answers, but we have to learn how to find them.”
The Astros work with a strong sense of team work, and everyone has a different ideas, but that’s how great things happen.
“Diversity is the strength,” she said.
Getting smart people around you is always good, Gardner said.
She is a strong believer in the idea that for a company to grow, there needs to be a core of “honesty and integrity.”
Gardner also believes that the key to good negotiation is to have everyone involved be winners.
“Let everyone win,” she said.
Focusing on personal development, Gardner emphasized the importance of everyone giving back to the community.
The C.T. Bauer College of Business hosts the event for alumni and students interested in networking.
The series will welcome KTRH talk show host Michael Berry on Nov. 18.
