ABOUT Leadership
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Jeff Cooper A MLS team would add to Cooper’s stable of soccer teams which includes a team in the new yet-to-be-named women’s professional soccer league that begins play in 2009 and a semi-pro women’s soccer team, the River Cities FC of the Women’s Professional Soccer League, that began play in 2006. Part of the plan to bring a MLS club to the region includes the construction of a soccer-specific stadium targeted for Collinsville, Ill., 10 minutes from downtown St. Louis. Once built, the new facility will be home to the MLS team and the women’s professional soccer team. Cooper’s company Seven Hills is the holding company for his various sports ventures and has a seat on the board of the English League One football (soccer) club Brentford. The seat on the board includes an option for Seven Hills to buy into Brentford in three years. His other sports interests include ownership of 18 high-end thoroughbreds that race in California and Kentucky and ownership of Bipod, a specialty retailer dedicated to equipping fitness enthusiasts with properly fitting shoes. SimmonsCooper, a law firm for which Cooper is Managing Partner, is a presenting sponsor of St. Louis Cardinals’ baseball on KTRS radio and his law partner John Simmons is the owner of the Savannah Sandgnats, the Class A affiliate of the Washington Nationals. SimmonsCooper also donated $1 million to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) for renovation and expansion of the school’s baseball facility. In addition to the baseball fields, the firm has pledged $10.2 million to SIU-Springfield School of Medicine’s new cancer institute, and the practice has also made a sizeable donation to Southern Illinois Hospice to assist in building a hospice facility in the Edwardsville area. Cooper has taken the lead on many charitable initiatives including serving as chair for the American Lung Association’s Asthma Walk, the Special Olympics’ Law Enforcement Torch Run Auction and honorary chair for the SCORES Soccer Tournament. SimmonsCooper provides each employee with two days off per year with pay for volunteer work, and the firm was voted one of the Best Places to Work in the St. Louis area by the St. Louis Business Journal in 2005 and 2006. Cooper, 38, is a native of Granite City, Ill., where he played soccer under legendary coach Gene Baker at Granite City High School before continuing his playing career at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. He graduated in 1991 from DePauw University with a BA degree in political science and with a JD degree from St. Louis University Law School in 1995. Cooper currently resides in Edwardsville, Ill., with his wife Francesca and children Jack, Ella, Maggie, and Maria. |
