Dee Bagwell Haslam

Owner, Cleveland Browns & Partner, Pilot Corporation & CEO, RIVR Media Companies

Owner Cleveland Browns, Partner Pilot Corporation, CEO RIVR Media Companies Dee Bagwell Haslam plays an active role in several companies and in the communities in which she lives. Most recently, Haslam and her husband Jimmy, as co-owners of the Cleveland Browns, established a clear, concise direction for the organization, focusing on three primary goals that properly respect their fans and the City of Cleveland. Their vision is to build a consistently winning football team, provide a great experience for their fans and give back to the Northeast Ohio community. The Browns Give Back strategy is centered on education, youth football and community engagement. Haslam is actively involved in creating impactful solution-based programs to promote attendance, school choice and volunteerism in both Cleveland and Knoxville. The Haslams have donated five artificial turf football fields for use by 10 high schools in Cleveland have provided transformative financial investments in Breakthrough Charter Schools and School Choice and are immersed in numerous other initiatives throughout the community. In Tennessee, Haslam serves on the State Collaborative of Reforming Education (SCORE), Emerald Youth Foundation, University of Tennessee Haslam College of Business Advisory Board, University of Tennessee Foundation and Lakeshore Park. The Haslams and Pilot Flying J have also initiated the turf field project in Knoxville, providing funding to transform 13 fields at area high schools. Haslam started her business career in the television production business working for her father, Ross Bagwell. In 1998, she and her partners Rob Lundgren and Lori Stryer took over Bagwell Entertainment and renamed it RIVR Media. As CEO of RIVR, they have produced hundreds of hours of programming, including, the well-known “Trading Spaces,” Emmy-nominated “Whale Wars,” “Escaping Polygamy,” “Fat Guys in the Woods” and 17 seasons of “Renovation Realities.” In addition to RIVR Media, in 2012, Haslam started Nest Features which produces films centered on Southern culture. Haslam is also part of the family ownership group of Pilot Flying J. PFJ is the number one seller of over-the-road diesel fuel with over 600 Travel Centers in the United States and Canada. In 2015, Forbes ranked PFJ #8 among America’s largest private companies. Her community involvement in Cleveland also includes serving on the Board of Directors of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, University Hospitals System and United Way of Greater Cleveland. Dee and Jimmy Haslam live in Cleveland, Ohio, and Walland, Tennessee. They have three children, James Bagwell Haslam, Whitney Johnson and Cynthia Arnholt and five grandchildren.