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Rob Cornilles

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Robert (Rob) Young Cornilles (born April 17, 1964) is an American businessman, educator and former congressional candidate. He is the founder and CEO of Game Face Marketing, Incorporated.

Game Face[edit]

Game Face is a sales consulting and training firm that has advised tens of thousands of executives across the United States and internationally. While it specializes in the sports and entertainment industry, the company also provides services to a variety of other markets, such as financial and professional services, tech, retail and electronics. The company was originally based in Portland, Oregon but is now located near Salt Lake City, Utah.

In his capacity at Game Face, Cornilles has trained sales and management executives at franchises from every major sports league in North America, including the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA), Major League Baseball (MLB), National Hockey League (NHL), Major League Soccer (MLS), racing (NASCAR), and entertainment companies such as Cirque du Soleil, Madison Square Garden and Feld Entertainment. Though unverifiable, Game Face claims that Cornilles has been invited into more team front offices than any other person in sports.[1]

Cornilles launched Game Face, Inc. in October of 1995 from his home in Tualatin, Oregon. Operating a strictly travelling sales training company for the first few years, Cornilles eventually hired others, all of whom were also home-based, to assist him in servicing a growing list of sports team clients. On its five-year anniversary in October of 2000, the company moved to its new headquarters in Tualatin, Oregon.

That same year, Cornilles opened the Game Face Executive Academy, a 12-week program in which Game Face provided comprehensive sports sales training for individuals unable to find employment in the industry. The program, the first of its kind in the sports market, admitted more than a thousand individuals before its discontinuation in 2010. The Academy placed hundreds of its graduates in full-time positions with sports organizations representing every major and minor league in the United States.

To facilitate placement of its Executive Academy graduates, the company launched Game Face Executive Search in 1999. The search division’s original purpose was to ensure successful outplacement services to Executive Academy attendees. Gradually, the Executive Search program began placing more experienced professionals as well, as Game Face clients began requesting more mid- and upper-level candidates in addition to Executive Academy graduates. This division was eventually sold to employee Jeff Yocom when he launched Marquee Search in June 2013.[2]

Cornilles began scaling back Game Face’s operations in 2009 after deciding to run for Oregon’s 1st congressional district of the United States Congress. With the exception of a handful of sports teams, he stepped away from servicing clients as he pursued public office. This continued until 2012, when he lost his second election. In 2016, Cornilles moved Game Face headquarters to Lehi, Utah. As a result of attrition and outplacements following the 2012 campaign, Game Face today is comprised mainly of Cornilles, some support staff and college interns.

Political Campaigns[edit]

2010 Mid-term Election[edit]

In 2009, Cornilles declared his candidacy for Oregon’s 2010 elections for a seat in the United States House of Representatives. He ran as a Republican in Oregon’s 1st district, which includes Multnomah and Washington Counties, Oregons two most populous counties. Cornilles won the May 2010 Republican primary by a margin of 13 points. Though a first-time candidate, Cornilles raised considerably more in-state money than his general election opponent, six-term Democratic incumbent David Wu.[3] However, Cornilles eventually lost to Wu in the general election by a sizeable 13-point margin (55 percent to 42 percent).[4]

2012 special election[edit]

Less than a year after Cornilles’ defeat, both U.S. senators from Oregon called for Rep. Wu’s resignation amid allegations that he made unwanted sexual advances on an 18-year-old woman, the daughter of one of his fundraisers.[5] This episode was the latest and most serious in a series of incidents that caused the public to question Wu’s state of mental health.[6] Following Rep. Wu’s resignation in 2011, Cornilles decided to run in the special election scheduled for January 2012 to fill the Wu vacancy.[7] Cornilles again carried the Republican primary, this time with an overwhelming 72.76 percent of the vote. In the general election, he opposed Democrat Suzanne Bonamici, who, running from her seat as a senator in the Oregon State Legislature, easily won the Democratic primary with 65.27 percent of the vote.

The race quickly turned negative as both political parties recognized the importance of the country’s first federal election of a presidential election year. House Republicans expressed early support in Cornilles’ campaign to claim a House seat the Democrats had controlled since 1975.[8] Perhaps wary of this momentum, national Democratic PACs and organizations such as the House Majority PAC began contributing millions of dollars to Bonamici’s campaign. Funds were used to produce a series of advertisements questioning Cornilles and his business. The Oregonian reported that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) alone spent an estimated 1.3 million on advertising for Bonamici.[9] The Cornilles campaign received most of its funding from prominent 1st District individuals like Phil Knight (Nike), Andy Bryant (Intel) and Tim Boyle (Columbia Sportswear).[10]

Cornilles was unable to overcome Bonamici’s overall financial advantage and a sizable voter registration disadvantage, losing the campaign with 40 percent of the vote to Bonamici’s 54 percent.[11]

Personal Life and Career[edit]

Rob Cornilles grew up in Tigard, Oregon and later graduated from Newberg High School. In 1988 he graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Cinematic Arts. After graduating from BYU, Cornilles and his wife Allison were hired as teachers by the Japanese Ministry of Education as part of its then fledgling JET Programme. A year later, Cornilles and his wife moved to Los Angeles, California, where Cornilles pursued a career in the entertainment business.

In 1991, Cornilles began working as a marketing representative for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was soon promoted to a management position, but departed from the Clippers in 1993 to join SRO Partners, a consulting firm co-founded by NBA executive and sports marketing leader, Jon Spoelstra. Cornilles left SRO Partners in 1995 to form Game Face Marketing, Incorporated. He has remained CEO of the company since its inception.

Cornilles scaled back Game Face operations in 2009 to focus on his upcoming congressional campaign for the United States House of Representatives. Following his unsuccessful bid – and later, his unanticipated but losing special election attempt in 2012 - Cornilles took on the role of Vice President of Investor & Government Relations and Corporate Marketing & Communications at ESCO Corporation, a one-time Game Face client. He left ESCO in 2015.

Today Cornilles resides in Utah, where he continues to operate Game Face while serving as an adjunct professor at the Marriott School of Business at Brigham Young University. Since 2012, Cornilles has also been a guest instructor at the Rawlings Sports Business Management program at Maryville University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Cornilles is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served a two-year church mission in Okayama, Japan. He serves on the National Advisory Board of Palo Alto-based Positive Coaching Alliance, is the former chair of Boy Scouts of America’s Cascade Pacific Council in Portland, Oregon, and a former board member of Special Olympics of Oregon.

References[edit]

  1. "History". Game Face. 2017-02-21. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  2. "Interview with Jeff Yocom, President of Marquee Search". Front Office Sports. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  3. "Oregon District 01 Race". OpenSecrets. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  4. "Official Results" (PDF). Oregon Secretary of State.
  5. Seelye, Katharine Q. (2011-07-26). "David Wu to Leave Congress After Sex Accusation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  6. Seelye, Katharine Q. (2011-07-26). "David Wu to Leave Congress After Sex Accusation". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  7. "Rob Cornilles, Republican, to announce run for David Wu's seat". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  8. "Cornilles cashes in on GOP donors". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  9. "Bonamici, Cornilles debate intensifying ad war in congressional race". OregonLive.com. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  10. "Robert Cornilles - $1,243,772 raised, '12 election cycle, Oregon (OR), Republican Party, Congress". www.campaignmoney.com. Retrieved 2018-02-13.
  11. "January 31, 2012, Special Election Abstracts of Votes" (PDF). Oregon Secretary of State.


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