Julie Simmons

Julie Simmons is a leader known for making complicated things work. Across every stage of her career, from building a sports marketing startup to navigating a large-scale acquisition, she has been trusted to bring clarity, order and forward momentum to complex organizations.

As co-founder at Paragon Sports Marketing, a Playfly Sports subsidiary, Julie continues to serve as Chief Operating Officer of Paragon Marketing Group, LLC, the legacy company she co-founded and still co-owns. The company remains involved in ventures like the Chicago Sky and the National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (NIBC).

Julie joined Paragon at 25 and became a partner by age 30, helping grow the company from a five-person startup into one of the nation’s leading sports marketing agencies, executing more than 15,000 brand activations annually across youth, collegiate and professional sports.

Over the years, Julie has built and led the internal infrastructure that made that growth possible: establishing Paragon’s HR, finance, IT and compliance functions from the ground up and scaling them to support a team of more than 90. Known for working at both the strategic and operational levels, she has played a central role in shaping the agency’s culture, ensuring it could expand without losing its identity.

That same ability has defined her role through Paragon’s acquisition by Playfly Sports in 2025. As the organization has navigated complex integrations across systems, teams and business units, Julie has been a steady force, connecting the dots. She has aligned priorities, managed transitions and brought teams together. While her work often happens behind the scenes, Julie ensures that plans turn into action and teams deliver results.

Under her leadership, Paragon has delivered some of the sports industry’s most innovative moments, including infield signage in NASCAR, dugout branding in Major League Baseball, the first internationally televised high school basketball game, and the formation of the first national prep basketball conference (NIBC). The agency continues to drive high-impact partnerships for leading brands such as Gatorade and ESPN.

Julie’s influence extends beyond the organizations she helps run and is most effective in roles where her judgment, perspective and leadership are at the forefront. In 2025, she was selected to serve on Kappa Delta’s Nominating Committee, where she helps evaluate and recommend the next generation of national sorority leadership. This role reflects both her business acumen and her commitment to advancing women leaders.

She has long been an advocate for building strong, inclusive cultures and expanding opportunities for others. At Paragon, she led initiatives focused on talent development, including a scholarship program with four Illinois universities and ongoing education to support a more inclusive and high-performing workplace. She continues to mentor women at all stages of their careers and is an active member of CHIEF, a national network of women executives.

Julie’s leadership and impact have been widely recognized. She is a recipient of the Sports Business Journal Game Changer Award and the WISE Chicago Women of Inspiration Award. In 2024, she was selected for the WISE Executive Leadership Institute (WELI) at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. She also serves on the University of Illinois College of Applied Health Sciences Board of Visitors, where she contributes to governance and leadership development efforts.

A breast cancer survivor, Julie brings resilience, perspective and a deep sense of responsibility to her work and leadership. She is known not only for what she builds, but for how she shows up for her team, her partners and the organizations she helps guide through complexity and change.

Outside of work, Julie enjoys fitness, travel and time with her husband Brad and their twin sons, Thomas and David. She and Brad are members of the Washington C. DePauw Lifetime Society, which honors alumni and supporters of DePauw University.