Administration

Tom Lesnau is entering his 32nd season with the Lions organization. Prior to the 2003 season he was promoted to senior vice president in conjunction with the restructuring of the Lions front office, and he is one of the senior members of the Lions management staff. His role consists of overseeing the club and stadium’s financial, insurance, banking, information technology, business systems, retail store and purchasing operations. Lesnau reports directly to President Tom Lewand.

During the last several years, Lesnau has been involved in assisting Lewand with the initial start-up and on-going development of Ford Field and the adjoining commercial and parking complex that has been recognized as one of the premiere venues in the NFL. Lesnau’s involvement with the stadium development has spanned all the way from 1996, when a new state of the art stadium was proposed for downtown Detroit. He has also coordinated a long-term financing arrangement for the stadium and warehouse projects, and the implementation, upgrade and standardization of accounting and reporting systems for the new ventures in order to facilitate an integrated financial system for team and stadium operations.

This past off-season, Lesnau and his finance group, in conjunction with the organization’s business operations, re-vamped the team’s entire retail operations and entered into a 10-year agreement with MainGate to become the exclusive retail and merchandising company for the organization. This agreement involved a complete re-launch of the team’s official team store, now know as “Lions Pro Shop,” e-commerce operations and is now the team’s internal merchandise department..

Over the past six years, Lesnau was instrumental in the development and implementation of a new combined budget strategy and process for the Lions and Ford Field, thus allowing the organization to strategically plan the direction of the two entities.

In his prior role, Lesnau established reporting controls to more effectively monitor the overall performance of the organization. He also revamped all computer operations of the team and implemented a new system for both financial operations and administrative areas of the club.

Lesnau gained five years of business and accounting experience with the international accounting firm of Ernst & Young from 1973 to 1978. He joined the Lions in 1978 as an accountant, took on the additional duties as travel coordinator in 1980, and was promoted to controller in 1991. He was promoted to the position of vice president of finance and chief financial officer in 1996. Prior to the team’s relocation to Detroit, Lesnau was the primary contact with the City of Pontiac and the Pontiac Silverdome.

Lesnau graduated with honors from Michigan State University in 1973 with a degree in business administration/accounting and is a Certified Public Accountant. Lesnau is a member of the American Institute of CPAs, the Michigan Association of CPAs, and the Financial Executives Institute of America.

Lesnau’s involvement with local charities includes positions as treasurer of Detroit Lions Charities and member of Board of Directors of Detroit Lions Courage House, Kolo Charities the Russ Thomas Scholarship Fund and numerous other charitable organizations. He also serves as a trustee on several local community organizations and governmental boards.

Lesnau is married to wife, Liz, and currently resides in Waterford. The native of the Detroit area has lived substantially all of his life in the Detroit metropolitan area.