Jean Afterman '75
Jean Afterman, Esq. '75 was the 2009 Distinguished Alumna Award Recipient.
Jean entered her 25th season as the Yankees’ Assistant General Manager and 15th as Senior Vice President, as of 2025. At the time of her appointment, she became only the third female to hold the position of Assistant General Manager in Major League Baseball history.
Jean entered her 25th season as the Yankees’ Assistant General Manager and 15th as Senior Vice President, as of 2025. At the time of her appointment, she became only the third female to hold the position of Assistant General Manager in Major League Baseball history.
Jean has been an integral part of the Yankees’ efforts and operations in Asia. In her first year with the Yankees, she was instrumental in developing the club’s relationship with the Yomiuri Giants of the Japan Central League and signing three-time MVP Hideki Matsui. In 2007, she joined team President Randy Levine and General Manager Brian Cashman on a week-long trip to Asia that concluded with a working agreement with the Chinese Baseball Association. She once again joined Levine and Cashman in 2010, when the Yankees brought the 2009 World Series trophy to Tokyo, Beijing, and Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong, Jean was given the honor of throwing out one of the ceremonial first pitches at the 2010 Phoenix Cup, an annual international women’s baseball tournament.
Her contributions and leadership have been repeatedly recognized throughout her baseball career. Jean was selected as one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in New York” by the New York Post in 203 and 2007, and was named one of the 2004 “Power 100” by The Sporting News. In 2007, Jean was profiled as one of Crain’s New York Business’ “100 Most Influential Women in New York Business,” and in 2008, she was noted by Forbes as one of the top female executives in baseball. In 2010, Jean was named by Women in Sports and Events (WISE) as one of the “Women of the Year,” and was tabbed by New York Moves magazine as a “Power Woman.” In 2013, she was again profiled on the front page of her hometown newspaper, the San Francisco Chronicle.
In more recent years, Jean was named one of Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal’s 2017 “Game Changers,” and her story was featured on the YES Network and ESPN.com. She was named one of Crain’s New York Business’ “2019 Most Notable Women in the Business of Sports,” and was awarded Baseball America’s “2019 Trailblazer of the Year Award,” becoming the inaugural winner of the honor. In 2021, she was again honored when she was recognized by the Sports Business Journal as one of its class of 2021 members of “The Champions: Pioneers and Innovators in Sports Business.” She was also saluted for her contributions to baseball during the 2021 offseason with a Baseball Service Award from the New York Pro Scouts Association.
Jean is a frequent guest speaker on the topics of women in sports and the business of baseball, having participated in events sponsored by Major League Baseball, Columbia Business School, New York University, SABR, Beyond Sport, the Sport Lawyers Association, and WISE, among others. In 2018 and 2019, Jean was a member of the Steering Committee for the Integrity and Impact Award presented at the BT Sport Industry Awards in London.
Jean joined the Yankees with a diverse business and legal background, focusing on international sports and licensing with an emphasis on U.S.-Japan matters. Prior to joining the Yankees, she managed her own practice, providing athletic representation and management with a specialization in arbitration proceedings. From 1994-1999, Jean was General Counsel at KDN Sports, Inc., and handled business and legal affairs for international baseball clients, including Hideo Nomo, Hideki Irabu, Masato Yoshii, Alfonso Soriano, and more than 30 Major and Minor League players. In 1996, Jean was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to a federal advisory committee, the National Organic Standards Board.
A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley in 1979, Jean was the recipient of the Rosalynn Schneider Eisner Prize and the Mark Goodson Scholarship Grant. She received her J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1991. In 2009, she was Burke’s “Distinguished Alumna of the Year.”
For many years, Jean maintained an active role in the Bronx community, working closely with P.S. 35, an elementary school within walking distance of Yankee Stadium. For more than a decade, she organized Yankees-sponsored Read-A-Thons and directed a mentoring program which matched Yankees employees with fourth and fifth grade students. Additionally, she has worked with high school-aged students through New York City’s Explorers program, which engages young people through career-orientation programs. She received the 2009 “Exploring Leadership Award” for her work with the group.
In 2012 and 2013, she served on the Board of Trustees of the Women’s Sports Foundation, and in 2015, she was appointed to serve on the advisory committee that oversees the Commissioner’s Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program. In 2018 and 2019, Jean served on the Board of Directors of DREAM (formerly Harlem RBI) and in 2020, she joined the Board of the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association. In 2021, Jean joined the board of Beyond Sport.
Q&A, Spring 2018.
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When you were a student at Burke’s, what did you dream you’d be doing at this point in your life?
I had a lot of dreams when I was at Burke’s—and a lot of these dreams were nurtured there. I had long held the dream of becoming a doctor like my father, but I also had my first taste of acting in the theater at Burke’s and so that became a dream, which did become a reality early in my working life (although my dream really was all about living in London and working on the West End!). There’s no doubt, though, that if you were a Burke’s girl, even way-back-when, you had big dreams about a full life!
What is your favorite international city?
That’s a tough one, but probably London. However, Tokyo has been an important part of my baseball career, so perhaps a split between London and Tokyo.
Who was your favorite teacher at Burke’s?
My seventh grade teachers all changed my life in a lot of ways. Nancy Clark, Elizabeth Noll, Bill Hughes, and Myna Huges (no relation to Mr. Hughes) were not only excellent teachers, but they were engaged with us, encouraged us, and nurtured our “big Burke’s dreams.”
Who would you invite to your fantasy dinner party and why?
While I have heroines and heroes from history and literature, I am not sure that I imagine Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth I tucking into a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc with me and my pals. The older I get, the more I realize that it is true what the Good Witch told Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz” (by the way, one of my first roles at Burke’s!): “There is no place like home.” So, I think it is me and my family and some friends, enjoying a really good dinner with some fantastic wine, stress-free and worry-free, with all the time in the world.
What advice would you give to a current Burke’s student?
My best advice would be to learn as much as you can and take advantage of the fantastic education that Burke’s has to offer. Believe that the world is full of limitless possibilities, and don’t stress that you haven’t figured out where you are going to be in five or ten years. One of the graduating seniors my first year at Burke’s had a terrific quote on her page in the yearbook—”One thing done, the rest follows”—and I have found that to be, so far, very true.
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