Bob Harlan

Bob Harlan
Portrait of Harlan smiling in a suit
Harlan in 1997
Green Bay Packers
Position:Chairman Emeritus
Personal information
Born: (1936-09-09) September 9, 1936 (age 88)
Des Moines, Iowa, U.S.
Career information
High school:Dowling Catholic (Des Moines)
College:Marquette University
Career history
As an executive:
Marquette University
  • Sports Information Director (1959–1965)
St. Louis Cardinals (baseball)
  • Director of Community Relations (1966–1968)
  • Director of Public Relations (1968–1971)
Green Bay Packers
  • Assistant General Manager (1971–1975)
  • Corporate General Manager (1975–1981)
  • Assistant to the President – Corporate (1981–1988)
  • Executive Vice President of Administration (1988–1989)
  • President and CEO (1989–2006)
  • CEO (2006–2008)
  • Chairman Emeritus (2008–present)
Career highlights and awards

Robert Ernest Harlan (born September 9, 1936) is an American former football executive who served as the president of the Green Bay Packers for 19 years. Harlan also held the titles of chairman of the board and chief executive officer for the Packers. He was a graduate of Marquette University, where he later served as the Sports Information Director for six years. After his tenure at Marquette, Harlan worked for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team for five years in community and public relations. In 1971, he was hired by the Packers as assistant general manager. For the next 18 years, Harlan worked in different positions in the front office for the Packers before being promoted to executive vice president in 1988. In 1989, after the retirement of Robert J. Parins, Harlan was elected as the Packers' ninth president, a position he held until 2008. Harlan became the first team president whose background was primarily in football; all previous presidents of the Packers were local civic leaders or businessmen in the Green Bay, Wisconsin-area.

During his tenure as president, the Packers achieved a number of successes both on and off the field. Harlan led a stock sale and advocated for a county sales tax to raise funds for renovations to Lambeau Field, oversaw the construction of the Don Hutson Center, a new training area next to Lambeau Field, and moved all Packers home games back to Green Bay (from 1933 to 1994, the Packers split their home games between Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin). On the field, Harlan hired Ron Wolf to be the team's new general manager. Wolf led a renaissance of the Packers' on-field performance with an instrumental trade for quarterback Brett Favre and the signing of free agent Reggie White. These successes culminated in the Packers winning Super Bowl XXXI, the team's first championship since Super Bowl II. In 2008, Harlan resigned the position of president and CEO and was succeeded by Mark Murphy. As of 2023, he still sits on the Packers' board of directors and holds the title of Chairman Emeritus.