{"id":4302,"date":"2023-01-10T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2023-01-10T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/?p=4302"},"modified":"2025-01-28T09:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:18:14","slug":"from-the-baseball-field-to-the-boardroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/magazine\/2023\/01\/from-the-baseball-field-to-the-boardroom\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Baseball Field to the Boardroom"},"content":{"rendered":"
How the Seton Hall student-athlete experience turned one student into a leader for everyone.<\/div><\/div>\n

By Amanda Loudin<\/p>\n

From the outside looking in, the challenges for anyone overseeing a grocery store chain during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns were seemingly insurmountable. Employees were faced with daily risk simply by showing up for work; the supply chain was in disarray and some store shelves were glaringly empty; and when customers came to the store, it was with a heavy dose of anxiety about this new, frightening disease. Yet for Chris McGarry, recently retired CEO of California-based Save Mart stores, navigating the challenges was quite simple. \u201cDo all you can to support the people in your stores, ensuring you\u2019re providing whatever they need to feel safe,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

That meant giving staff the necessary PPE (personal protective equipment), putting in place a bonus program for employees coming into work and maintaining that for 17 months, and absorbing all employee medical costs associated with COVID. \u201cWe also provided three meals a day to our people because they might have been struggling to access prepared food at that time, and we paid particular attention to their personal needs and issues,\u201d McGarry explains. \u201cI could recite hundreds of stories of employees who demonstrated incredible commitment to our stores, customers and colleagues, and it was important we recognize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, McGarry says that the pandemic served to \u201crestore the grocery store to its proper place in the community. It was a reminder of our normal, daily lives, and one of the only places for human interaction in the early days of COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGarry didn\u2019t set out to work in grocery retail, but his preparation for leadership began early at Seton Hall, when he earned first a bachelor\u2019s degree in history in 1988, followed by an M.B.A. in economics in 1989, and finally, a J.D. in 1992. He drew lessons from both the classroom and the ballfields\/courts as a student-athlete in baseball and tennis.<\/p>\n

\u201cComing into Seton Hall as a driven, headstrong and ambitious guy, I was unaware of how much I really needed to learn,\u201d says McGarry. \u201cI formed great relationships, learned from every experience, and left thoroughly impressed by the programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he reflects on his experiences as a student athlete, McGarry can now see how they prepared him for the career path he eventually followed. \u201cI remember a real estate law class with Professor Paula Franzese, and the way she engaged us with her creative teaching methods,\u201d he says. \u201cAt the time, I was impatient and thought that if a class or work wasn\u2019t painful, I wasn\u2019t making progress. But as a CEO who had to get in front of everyone in an organization, I learned to appreciate her approach for drawing in a diverse audience from a wide variety of circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

This has proven particularly valuable to McGarry as he worked to evolve ideas for diversity and inclusion at Save Mart. \u201cThese were lessons I never appreciated in the moment, but by applying them I saw how we became a more powerful and effective organization as a result,\u201d he says. \u201cSeton Hall allowed me to grow intellectually, developing an appreciation for other people, for ethics and for ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Likewise, his experience as a walk-on freshman baseball player left him with life lessons he has put to good use. \u201cI was welcomed into the program and mentored, allowing me to make tremendous progress,\u201d McGarry says. \u201cIt was such a well-run program, and it unwittingly made
\nan impression on me that I drew on as a CEO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amanda Loudin is a Maryland-based freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How the Seton Hall student-athlete experience turned one student into a leader for everyone.<\/p>\n

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