The 2015 Awardees

Richard L. Battista

BSBA 1986
Los Angeles, CA

Richard Battista, a media executive and alumni volunteer, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, CA, on April 18, 2015.

Following his undergraduate business degree at Georgetown and an MBA from Harvard, Battista joined Fox Networks, where he began a 20 year career that led him to executive roles as president of Fox National Cable and CEO of TV Guide. After two years as CEO of Mandalay Sports Properties, he joined Time Inc. in 2015, becoming president of its Entertainment & Sports group, and served from 2016 to 2018 as its the president and chief executive officer.

Throughout his business career, Battista has been closely aligned with Georgetown and its alumni. In 2002, he founded the Georgetown Entertainment & Media Alliance (GEMA), a network which has grown to over 2,000 alumni in film, television, music, publishing, and emerging media. He has served as GEMA chairman since its inception, and leads an advisory board of volunteer leaders in the Los Angeles, Washington, and New York media communities.

A past recipient of the Alumni Association's William Gaston and James P. Reed awards, Battista has served on its Board of Governors and the University Board of Regents and served on the planning committees of the 2011 and 2015 John Carroll weekends.

Carmen A. Policy

JD 1966
Yountville, CA

Carmen Policy, formed president and CEO of the San Francisco 49ers and Cleveland Browns of the National Football League, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, CA, on April 18, 2015.

Raised in Youngstown, OH, Policy received his bachelor's degree from Youngstown State University, and sought admission to Georgetown Law.

"I don't know why they went out on a limb for me," Policy recounted in a 2007 interview. "They said this has to be one of those decisions you make that's based on the fact you're doing a nice thing for someone, and you're going to take a chance it will pay off. It was one of the pivotal moments in my life. Those three years at Georgetown changed me significantly. "

Returning to Youngstown to enter private practice, Policy became the personal attorney of Edward DeBartolo Jr. a fellow Youngstown native who purchased the San Francisco 49ers in 1977. Policy negotiated the contract that brought Bill Walsh to the 49ers as head coach, and joined the team in 1983 as vice president and general counsel. He was named its president and CEO in 1991. The 49ers won five Super Bowl titles in a 14 year period.

After leaving the 49ers, Policy joined the group which returned football to Cleveland after moved Art Modell moved his team to Baltimore. Policy served as president and CEO of the Cleveland Browns from 1998 to 2004.

A member of the Law Center's Board of Visitors, Policy and his wife, Gail, endowed a fellowship for studies in civil rights law.

Mary Machado Schammel

AB 1980, MBA 2015
Pasadena, CA

Mary Machado Schammel, a dedicated alumni leader in Southern California, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, CA, on April 18, 2015.

Growing up in Honolulu, Georgetown's reputation in international business attracted her to study in Washington, receiving her degree in 1980. Relocating to Los Angeles, she has enjoyed a 35 year career in international investment banking, with positions at Lloyd's, First Interstate, and Standard Chartered, where she served as Senior Vice President and Head of Standard Chartered's Western operations. Since 2006 she has served an advisor to Greenwich Associates, which provides market intelligence within the financial services industry.

A former chair of the Georgetown Club of Los Angeles, Schammel has been a member of the Alumni Association Board of Governors and Alumni Senate since 1986. A past recipient of the Association's William Gaston Award, she is a co-founder of the Wall Street Alliance-West, extending Georgetown's reach within the finance community of the West Coast.

In 2015, she earned her MBA via a combined global program at Georgetown and ESADE.

Paul J. Tagliabue

AB 1962
Washington DC

Paul Tagliabue, a washington DC based attorney and former commissioner of the National Football League from 1989 through 2006, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, CA, on April 18, 2015.

A resident of Jersey City, NJ, Tagliabue came to Georgetown in 1958 on a basketball scholarship. A three year starter, he was its team captain, president of his senior class, and a Rhodes Scholarship finalist before graduating from Georgetown in 1962. Following law school at NYU , he joined the Washington DC firm of Covington & Burling, where he became chief counsel for the NFL. In 1989, he was selected to succeed Pete Rozelle as its commissioner.

Tagliabue's 16 years at the helm of the NFL was transformative in sports. In a period of labor peace among owners and players, TV rights fees grew from $500 million per year in 1989 to over $3.7 billion by 2006. The league expanded by six teams, instituted a salary cap and revenue sharing model, and implemented a substance abuse policy. It was Tagliabue who ordered NFL games postponed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a departure from the much criticized decision of his predecessor to play games following the death of President John Kennedy in 1963.

Upon his retirement from the NFL in 2006, Tagliabue rejoined Covington & Burling as a senior counsel and joined the Board of Directors at Georgetown. As Chairman of the Board of Directors from 2009-2015, he was at the forefront of Georgetown's $1.5 billion capital campaign, For Generations to Come. In 2011, the Tagliabue family made a $5 million leadership gift as part of the campaign across undergraduate scholarship, athletics, and programmatic support.

David J. Walsh
(1936-2024)

AB 1958
New York, NY

David Walsh, a retired publishing executive and dedicated benefactor to the Georgetown University Library, received the John Carroll Award in ceremonies held at the Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, CA, on April 18, 2015.

Walsh received his bachelor's degree from Georgetown in 1958. Following military service and an MBA from Pennsylvania, he began a 43 year career in publishing, serving as managing director of Time-Life Books and senior vice president at Scholastic, Inc. He served on board of the Georgetown University Lauinger Library Board of Directors for over four decades, and was its chairman from 1999 through 2005.

To some of his closest friends, Walsh is not remembered merely as a business executive but as "Chime #33", as his ties to Georgetown's a capella group remained as strong as ever. In 1990, he led efforts to support a library endowment in honor of the Chimes, which now encompasses over $3 million in gifts. Outside of the endowment, the Chimes raised an additional $1.2 million to name the library's main reference area in his name, in honor of his support and leadership.

David Walsh died in October 2024 at the age of 88.