Speaker Profile

Mollie Marcoux Samaan is the ninth Commissioner of the LPGA since its formation in 1950. Her journey to the LPGA began at Princeton University where she was a two-sport varsity athlete in soccer and ice hockey before graduating cum laude in 1991. In her senior year, she was awarded the Otto Von Kienbusch Sportswoman of theYear Award given to the University’s top female athlete. Following graduation, Marcoux Samaan served as assistant athletic director, assistant dean of admissions and coach of girls’ ice hockey and soccer at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey.

She then began a 19-year career with Chelsea Piers Management, the company that owns and operates two world-class sports complexes, ChelseaPiers New York and Chelsea Piers Connecticut, becoming executive vice president of Chelsea Piers’400,000-square-foot multi-venue complex in Connecticut, a facility with more than 300 employees, including professional athletes, Olympians, former collegiate coaches, former Division I athletes and sports industry leaders.

In 2014, Marcoux Samaan was recruited back to Princeton as the University’s Ford Family Director of Athletics. In her seven years as Director of Athletics, Princeton teams won a league-leading 65 Ivy League Championships and finished as high as 30th in the prestigious Learfield IMG Cup standings, which measures overall success of all Division I Athletics programs.During her tenure, Marcoux Samaan developed and executed a 5-year strategic plan that included the development of Princeton Tiger Performance, a holistic athletic performance initiative, and the design and development of over $200 million in facility renovations and new construction. In 2020- 2021, Marcoux Samaan received the NACDA (National Association of College Directors of Athletics) Athletics Director of the Year Award.

A passionate golfer from a young age, Marcoux Samaan has taken that same strategic thinking to the world’s oldest independent professional women’s sports league. In her tenure as LPGA Commissioner, she defined the Association’s six strategic pillars and instituted a BeGREAT performance model. She has worked closely with players, board members, partners, and independent advisors to crystalize the core purpose and values of the LPGA, which includes a firm commitment to being the global leader in women’s golf and using that platform to inspire, empower and transform the lives of girls and women on and off the golf course.