AJ Jones II is the Executive Vice President, Chief Strategic and Corporate Communications Officer at Monumental Sports and Entertainment (MSE) reporting to the Chairman and CEO. In this role, he oversees the development, execution and amplification of MSE’s brand and corporate narratives; corporate stakeholder engagement strategies; and the advancement of MSE’s corporate growth initiatives and implementation of its business objectives across the company’s media-entertainment and sports ecosystem including: National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), Women’s National Basketball Association (WBNA), professional esports gaming, Capital One Arena and other entertainment venues, and the MNMT media which is distributed on linear television and over-the-top (OTT) platforms. He also oversees all consumer, fan, employee, media-entertainment, and brand-experience communications, as well as corporate marketing, financial communications and investor relations.
Jones was named to the newly created position from Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ: SBUX), where he served in multiple leadership roles, including Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, and Executive Vice President and Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer. In those roles, Jones led the company’s global communications, partner (employee) communications and social media platforms, corporate and investor communications, brand-product communications and experiences, Starbucks Entertainment, global government affairs, Social Impact, and Starbucks Foundation teams worldwide. He also played a pivotal role in Starbucks’ global growth by fostering public-private partnerships to spearhead economic development. Additionally, Jones served as lead executive for the company’s Board of Directors Environmental, Partner, and Community Impact Committee, was an executive sponsor of the Armed Forces Partner Network, and was a governing member of the Global Brand Council.
Before joining Starbucks, he was the Chief Corporate Affairs & Communications Officer for Vanda Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: VNDA), a global biopharmaceutical company. Prior to this position, Jones served as a c-suite executive at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation – one of the largest philanthropic foundations in the world. Additionally, he has held senior executive roles in Fortune 500 companies, top-ranked consultant agencies, and governmental intuitions.
Jones has worked internationally in Hong Kong, South Africa, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Switzerland and has extensive business development experience in emerging markets and in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. He is actively involved in the Washington Economic Club, Executive Leadership Council, World Fifty Group, Lagrant Foundation, Blue Star Families and is an Executive Member of the Forbes Communications Council and Fast Company Executive Board member.