The San Francisco 49ers are planning to make their move down to the South Bay in the next few years and move away from the decrepit Candlestick Park. With that happening, the 49ers are really taking advantage of the Silicon Valley pipeline to try and upgrade their operations and management. They've hired a pretty good Chief Technology Officer to take over who has plenty of experience.
San Francisco 49ers President Gideon Yu announced that Kunal Malik, one of Silicon Valley’s leading technology experts, will be joining the organization. Malik will serve as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and starts this new position May 1. As the CTO, he’ll lead all technology efforts for the club as well as the new Santa Clara stadium.
"We have set very high goals for what we want the Santa Clara stadium to be in terms of innovation, technology and user experience," said Yu. "To achieve those goals, we need a leader with an incredibly unique skill set. In my opinion, there is nobody better qualified for this role, and I am excited to partner with Kunal again. Kunal has a unique ability and track record of integrating cutting edge technologies with an eye toward an excellent and simple customer experience."
This isn't the first high-profile hire of a technocrat this year for San Francisco. The 49ers have already hired Gideon Yu as their president, a man who used to be the CFO of Facebook and YouTube. The team seems very willing to embrace the technological corporate giants and perhaps are using it to get better acquainted with their local businesses.
The 49ers will need to have their technology up to date, since their stadium figures to be state-of-the-art and right at the cutting edge of technologically savvy NFL stadiums.
To discuss this development with 49ers fans, head to Niners Nation.