🏆 A Career of Opening Stadiums & Leading Guest Experience

Ray Daryabigi is the Vice President of Guest Experience and Security for the San Diego Padres, where his work helped Petco Park earn USA Today's number one MLB ballpark ranking in 2026. Almost two decades in sports and entertainment, he has built guest experience departments across three leagues, the Dodgers and Angels in MLB, the Kings and Bucks in the NBA, and the Rams in the NFL, including standing up brand new venues like Golden 1 Center and SoFi Stadium. Off the field, he chairs the Big Brothers Big Sisters of San Diego Sports Council, sits on the board of Heart of Los Angeles, and mentors through the USC Sports Business Association.

Starting Over From the Ground Floor

Ray excelled in baseball through high school and into junior college, until a pitching injury derailed his athletic path. He pivoted into health and fitness, spending nearly a decade managing gyms across Southern California. The pull toward sports never faded, though, and it eventually brought him back to the industry through an entry-level job with the LA Dodgers.

Living paycheck to paycheck in a demanding new role, Ray leaned into proactive leadership rather than waiting for seniority to earn him influence. His energy got noticed, and by the end of his first season he was promoted to Manager. It reinforced a lesson that shaped the rest of his career: leadership is about attitude and action, not title.

Earning Trust in a New Role

The move to the LA Angels meant proving himself from scratch, without assuming what worked at the Dodgers would translate. Rather than push his own agenda immediately, Ray spent a month on a listening tour with his new team, building real relationships before setting direction. That patience paid off once his squad understood his vision, and it set up his next move to the Sacramento Kings.

Building Golden 1, Then Starting Again

In Sacramento, Ray closed the historic Sleep Train Arena and opened Golden 1 Center, sharpening his project management and event coordination skills well outside his comfort zone. The arena won the 2017 Sports Business Journal Facility of the Year award. From there, he joined the LA Rams to help open SoFi Stadium, doing so without fans due to the pandemic. He was later laid off during that stretch and used the time to earn an Executive Master of Leadership degree from USC, a program that taught him reflection, mindfulness, and how to lead through disruptive change.

Family First

Those leadership lessons were tested almost immediately when Ray was offered a Vice President role with the Milwaukee Bucks. He and his family moved to the Midwest, bought a home, and committed to building a new life there while expecting their fourth child. But the realities of life in Wisconsin proved difficult for the family. Knowing his purpose centered on family, Ray raised the issue directly with Bucks senior leadership, who supported him through the transition. It's the kind of decision that reflects his broader approach to leadership: adaptability and empathy applied to his own life, not just his teams.

What the Comfort Zone Costs You

Looking back across four organizations and three leagues, Ray's path keeps returning to the same throughline. Growth came from leaving what was secure and stepping into what was demanding, from a gym manager job into an entry-level baseball role, and from established markets into new venue openings. Leadership, in his view, is proactive regardless of position. And through it all, continuous learning, whether picking up a new organization's systems or going back to school after a layoff, kept him moving forward rather than stalling out.