Brandon Steiner

Brandon Steiner grew up in Brooklyn and began hustling in business from an early age, which he credits with shaping his entrepreneurial drive; he worked in food service and hospitality (including managing a hospital cafeteria and roles at the Hard Rock Café and the Sporting Club) before moving into sports PR and marketing in the 1980s. Using roughly $4,000 and a one-room office, he launched Steiner Associates (later Steiner Sports) in 1987–1988 to represent athletes for appearances and to sell authenticated sports memorabilia. Over the next three decades Steiner built Steiner Sports into one of the largest sports-memorabilia and athlete-representation firms in the U.S., acquiring exclusive autograph relationships with major athletes and negotiating partnerships with organizations and teams; notable business activities included an agreement with the New York Yankees to sell items from the old Yankee Stadium in 2009 and cultivating partnerships with entities such as the Dallas Cowboys, Boston Red Sox, and major universities. His company expanded into retail, licensing and publishing, and he became a visible media personality through TV/radio appearances and an Emmy-nominated show on the YES Network. Steiner has authored three books: The Business Playbook (2003), You Gotta Have Balls: How a Kid From Brooklyn Started From Scratch, Bought Yankees Stadium and Built a Sports Empire (2012), and Living on Purpose (2018), and has lectured at top business schools (Harvard, Kellogg, Columbia, Yale) and spoken to Fortune 500 audiences on entrepreneurship, branding, and leadership. In 2019 he launched new ventures including The Steiner Agency and CollectibleXchange as part of an evolving business focus beyond traditional memorabilia into broader branding, agency and digital collectible marketplaces. Outside business, Steiner is active in philanthropy and community causes (including involvement with Family Services of Westchester and Camp Sussex) and is frequently profiled for his emphasis on memories that matter, people management, and practical time/communication strategies that underpin his speaking and coaching work.