Nick Arison enters his ninth year as a full-time member of the HEAT organization and his first in the newly created role of Chief Executive Officer. Arison, who was promoted to CEO on July 22, 2011 and oversees the day-to-day operations of the franchise, has been a limited partner in the team and served as the alternate governor since the 2005-06 season. He has been associated with successful teams on every level of basketball and has been a part of championships with the Miami HEAT, Duke University and USA Basketball. The promotion to his current responsibilities was a natural progression for Nick, who has grown up with the HEAT. His grandfather, Ted Arison, was one of the team’s original founders and his father, Micky Arison, bought the controlling share of the franchise and was named Managing General Partner on Feb. 13, 1995.

Arison has served the HEAT in a variety of positions over the years and has learned the business from the ground up. He initially started working for the HEAT organization as a team attendant for four seasons from 1995-99. He then served summer internships in the Arena Operations, Community Affairs and Sales and Marketing departments before becoming a full-time staff member on the business side of the organization in 2003 as an Account Manager, Premium Partnerships. In 2006, he was promoted to Director of Corporate and Premium Services where he oversaw the Account Management Team. Prior to the 2008-09 season he was named Vice President, Basketball Operations where he worked directly with HEAT President Pat Riley and Senior Vice President, Basketball Operations/Assistant General Manager Andy Elisburg on overseeing the basketball side of the organization and played an active role in the recruiting and procurement of talent. During the summer of 2010 he was instrumental in the re-signing of Dwyane Wade, Udonis Haslem, James Jones and Joel Anthony and the acquisitions of LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Mike Miller.

In addition to his responsibilities with the HEAT, Arison served as a member of the United States Men’s Senior National Team support staff from 2004-08. He assisted with the day-to-day operations for USA Basketball’s 2008 Olympic team that captured the gold medal in Beijing, China as well as the 2007 gold medal winning FIBA Americas Championship team, the bronze medal winning 2006 World Championship team and the bronze medal winning team at the 2004 Olympics.

Arison began his basketball administrative career while attending Duke University. He spent four seasons as team manager of the Blue Devils men’s basketball team and was named the head team manager during his senior year. Over that four-year span, Arison became the only team manager in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) history to be a part of four straight ACC Championships and was a manager for Duke’s 2001 NCAA National Championship team.

A native of Miami, Arison graduated from Duke with a degree in public policy and a certificate in marketing and management.