Madison Square Garden today announced that Justin Edelman has been named vice president, communications. In this position, Mr. Edelman will be working on strategic planning and public relations management for Madison Square Garden and its properties, reporting to senior vice president, communications, Barry Watkins.

Mr. Edelman’s primary focus will be providing public relations counsel and support for the Garden’s most important corporate initiatives, including the upcoming Madison Square Garden renovation, the company’s on-going business priorities and helping elevate broad-based publicity efforts for the sports teams. He also will communicate with business press, work on crisis communications and conduct proactive national and local media relations across a wide spectrum of targets including business, consumer and lifestyle and serve as a media contact on select issues and projects.

Justin Edelman comes to Madison Square Garden after more than nine years in the sports and sponsorship practice at Edelman, the world’s largest independent public relations agency. As vice president, he provided account management and execution for client sponsorships, sports leagues and events. In that role, Edelman oversaw public relations activities for the ING New York City Marathon; Canon’s NFL and U.S. Open marketing programs; FOX Interactive Media, including FOXSports.com; and events such as the Millrose Games, the world’s premier indoor track and field event held at Madison Square Garden. Additionally, Edelman assisted in the opening of the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, and managed sponsorship programs on behalf HSBC (Wimbledon), NASDAQ (tennis), Avaya (World Cup) and adidas.

Prior to working at Edelman, he spent more than two years as an account manager at Mastro Communications, overseeing a variety of sports accounts, including Prince Sports Group, Softspikes, Total Sports, Major League Baseball Properties and Macmillan Publishing.

Mr. Edelman holds a Masters degree in organizational communications from Fairleigh Dickinson University and Bachelor of Arts degree in communications from the University of Massachusetts. He resides in Fanwood, New Jersey with his wife and two children.