Farhan Zaidi | |
---|---|
Born |
Sudbury, Ontario, Canada |
November 11, 1976
Nationality | Canadian |
Alma mater |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of California, Berkeley |
Occupation | General Manager |
Years active | 2005 - present |
Employer | Los Angeles Dodgers |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Farhan Zaidi (born November 11, 1976) is a Canadian-American sports executive of Pakistani descent. He is currently the General Manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Zaidi was born on November 11, 1976 in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada to a family of Pakistani ancestry. He was raised in the Philippines after his family moved to Manila when he was four years old. He has a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate of philosophy (PhD) in economics from the University of California, Berkeley. He briefly worked for the Boston Consulting Group and the Sporting News website between MIT and Berkeley.
While at Berkeley, he read the book Moneyball and it changed his life. He saw a job posting for a baseball operations position with the Oakland Athletics and sent out his resume, beating out 1,000 other applicants for the job. He was a data analysis sabermetrics assistant when he started. His boss with the Athletics, Billy Beane called him "absolutely brilliant" and credited him with the acquisition of Cuban star Yoenis Céspedes.
For the 2013 season he was promoted by the Athletics to the post of Director of Baseball Operationsand added Assistant General Manager to his title in 2014.
On November 6, 2014, he was hired by the Los Angeles Dodgers as their new general manager.
Zaidi is one of two Muslim executives in Major League Baseball. He is the first Muslim general manager of any American professional sports franchise.