HR Magazine, May 2010
Inside Baseball
By Rita Zeidner
The author is a senior writer for HR Magazine.
Bettina Deynes had been back at work for only a few days following the birth of her third son—and a tonsillectomy—when she got a call from an executive recruiter. She had not given much thought to leaving the wine and spirits distributor where she headed up human resources. But she was having difficulty reconciling that job with her personal values, including a commitment to help homeless people struggling with alcoholism.
Two months later, Deynes was interviewing for the top HR position with the Washington Nationals, Washington, D.C.’s newly franchised baseball team. She was hired in October 2006.
Today, Deynes works out of an executive suite in Nationals Park, the team’s two-year-old stadium. In a late-February interview—just before heading out for Viera, Fla., to ready the Nationals’ major and minor league teams for spring training—Deynes offered insights on her role.