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OUR TEAM

YLT FOUNDER
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Laura Kassirer. Laura is a former 5 time Wimbledon player, with wins over tennis professionals such as Mary Jo Fernandez and Manuela Maleeva. Laura was one of the top juniors in Florida, received a full scholarship to U of South Carolina, where she played #1 singles as a freshman and sophomore while leading her team to a #6 national ranking. Laura was All-American both years before turning Pro after her sophomore year in 1983, where she held a ranking at around 120 in the world for 5 consecutive years. Laura also runs Kassirer Sports, which provides after school tennis enrichment programs in over 100 elementary schools.  Laura is committed to giving as many children as possible the opportunity to learn and play tennis in their own neighborhood.  Laura continues to be involved on a daily basis and personally hires and oversees all coaches. Laura welcomes parent feedback and is always striving to make Youth League Tennis the best program possible.
YLT CHIEF HR OFFICER
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Rachel Kassirer Troupe
Rachel earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from Colorado State University and has over six years of experience in recruiting, staffing, and HR. She has worked on both the staffing agency side, as well as corporate recruiting, to identify the best talent possible to help organizations grow. Rachel is an expert at finding ways to maximize efficiencies in recruiting, onboarding, and training processes. She is committed to ensuring that YLT continues providing the highest caliber tennis instructors possible for all of our players. 
YLT BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Allan Kassirer
Allan is a practicing attorney. He earned his Law Degree at American University and Master's of Law at Georgetown University, where he also taught law classes. Allan currently specializes in entertainment contract law. 
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Bradley Yanover
Bradley has spent most of his life working as an entertainment entrepreneur and real estate developer. His renowned projects have included spearheading the redevelopment of the gamed South Beach district of Miami and the SoHo district of New York. His New York-based fil production and finance company, GreeneStreet Films, has produced feature films that have received 5 Oscar nominations. He is currently a partner of DDB Ventures with Arizona Diamondbacks owner, Dale Jensen. 
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Joel Engel
Joel has authored and/or co-authored more than 15 books, including a New York Times Bestseller, in the following genres: narrative nonfiction, essays, sports, satire, pop-culture, biography, and autobiography. As a journalist for the New York Times and Los Angeles Times among other papers/periodicals, he reported on everything from politics to cancer research, pop-culture, and business. He has also sold several feature-film scripts to Hollywood and produced about 60 hours of cable television. 
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Steve Hayman
Steve is a marketing expert and tennis enthusiast. He started out at Doyle Dane Bernback Advertising Agency from 1971-1978. From there, Steve worked his way up to be General Manager of Foote, Cone & Belding advertising agency in Los Angeles from 1979-1991. He was a Partner in Seininiger Advertising Agency from 1991-1993 and then spent 3 years as President of Marketing at Savoy Pictures from 1195-1997. Steve finished his career running Kaleidoscope Films Group advertising agency from 1998-2003 before retiring. Steve is now an avid tennis and golf player. 
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Andrea Leand
Andrea has an extensive background in the tennis world and was an amazing player. Andrea was the #1 ranked Junior in the world and was a WTA Pro  from 1981-1996, ranked as high as #12 in the nation. She also represented the United States in the Olympics and Fed Cup. Andrea earned her Degree from Princeton University in 1988 and MBA from Johns Hopkins in 2002.  
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