Tim Purpura

Tim Purpura has had a remarkable career in the world of United States professional sports. His career consists of 30-plus years in all aspects of executive sports and corporate management. On November 1, 2004, he was named General Manager of the Houston Astros Baseball Club.

In 2005 the Astros won the National League Championship and appeared in the World Series for the first time in franchise and State of Texas history. During Tim’s tenure as GM, the team appeared in the World Series once and the National League Championship series twice. He also served as the primary media contact for the franchise, which included appearances in international, national and local sports mediums during the championship season, playoffs and World Series. Tim negotiated all free agent and arbitration-eligible contracts, including a team-record $100 million free agent contract.

Tim spent 14 years with the Houston Astros serving in such roles as Major League General Manager, Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Development. Overall, the team made the playoffs in 6 of 9 seasons.  

Tim developed a player development and scouting system which was honored with the Organization of the Year Award in 2001 by Baseball Weekly, Baseball America, Sportsticker and Topps. During the period of 1998-2004, the system won 13 minor league championships and produced Major League players such as Jose Altuve, Hunter Pence, Roy Oswalt, Lance Berkman, Brad Lidge, Johan Santana, Freddy Garcia, and Bobby Abreu.

After his tenure in Houston, Tim served four seasons as the Executive Vice-President/ COO of Minor League Baseball, leading the MiLB executive management team in the areas of accounting, legal, marketing, promotion, umpire development, and baseball operations. He served as the primary contact with Major League Baseball in the areas of baseball operations, Player Development Contract (PDC) negotiations, team and stadium security, and umpire development

He led a project team that converted the company’s Defined Benefit Pension Plan to a Defined Contribution plan which resulted in savings of $300,000 over prior costs. He served as a member of the team that negotiated a five-year collective bargaining agreement in November 2011 with the AMLU (Association of Minor League Umpires) in record time (six days) avoiding a lockout or strike, as had occurred in the previous labor negotiation. 

Tim spent three years with the Texas Rangers as the Senior Director of Player Development. During that period the Rangers were awarded the Organization of the year.

As President of The Texas League of Professional Baseball Clubs, Inc., Tim served as the chief executive and judicial officer of an eight team, professional baseball league, located in Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas. His duties included serving as a resource for the League members in the areas of finance and budgets, franchise relocations, sales and operations. He was responsible for developing complex league, team, and umpire schedules. He handled adjudication of player and field staff infractions and ejections, and he was also responsible for budget development and management.

Tim has also served academia at Southern Methodist University as an Adjunct Professor in the Graduate Sports Management Program.

Recently Tim served as Senior Director, Legal Affairs and Contracts at Virtuoso Travel Ltd. In this role he was tasked with developing the first legal department at a technology-based, ultra-luxury travel consortium. He developed a proprietary legal tracking and storage system utilizing ZOHO CRM. He supported the legal needs of staff throughout the company including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, EMEA, East Asia, Saudi Arabia, among others.

In January 2025 Tim formed the entity “The Mediation and ADR Office of Tim Purpura.”

EDUCATION & LICENSURE

·      Certificate of Completion, Basic Mediation Training, as approved by the State Bar of Texas – 2025

·      Thomas Jefferson School of Law, San Diego, CA – Juris Doctor – 1991

·      Admitted to the Practice of Law, State of California – 1992 to Present

·      Admitted to the Practice of Law, US District Court of Southern California – 1992

·      Loyola University of Chicago – Bachelor of Science, Psychology – 1986