Lara Heilig-Overholt

**Lara Heilig-Overholt** is the owner and general manager of the Montréal Olympiens

## Managing Style

Good drafting is the way to build and keep a successful franchise. No player is untouchable.

## Personality

Likes to have a good relationship with other GMs and tries to be fair in her deals and trades.

## Biography

Lara Heilig-Overholt was born in Innsbruck, in the austrian state of Tyrol to Swen Heilig and Yael Cohen. Her parents met during one of her father's business trips in Israel. She has five siblings, brothers Roman, Steffen, Abram and Johannes and sister Anja.

The Heiligs are historically successful bankers. They lost most of their fortune in the 1940s, however, and took over a decade to rebuild it. They are today known for their investment firm, which was founded by Lara's grandfather in the 50s. While its headquarters are based in Innsbruck, other offices are present across most continents.

Lara studied finance at the Wirtschaftsuniversität in Vienna with the idea of joining the family business once she graduated. She met her husband Adrian, a fellow student from the United States, at university.

A few years after their wedding and with the assistance of the Heilig family, Adrian acquired a PHL franchise, the Windsor Wendigo. In the franchise's early years, Lara stayed in Austria to complete her studies and look after the Overholt children. Adrian hoped his wife would join the team's management with him but although she did enjoy hockey, she never felt like she had the qualifications to assist him with major decisions concerning the team. For that reason, she refused to be a part of the organization's management for a long time.

Once she moved with the rest of the family to Windsor, she got involved more with the Wendigo. Her husband knew what he was doing and asked for her opinion on the most mundane of things at first, and slowly got her involved in more serious topics. Adrian offered her a job as a finance advisor for the team shortly after she moved in Ontario, which she gladly accepted. It was quickly made obvious the initial plan of opening an office for her family's firm in the Windsor/Detroit area was not a good idea. She never really was the stay-at-home type so the job was most welcome.

In S17, after yet another general manager left the Wendigo, Lara finally accepted the upper management position. It was agreed that she would work on things she was comfortable with, like finance and marketing. She'd assist her husband in hockey related matters in the most subtle of ways, stating that Adrian sometimes only needed someone to agree with him to make him feel comfortable about his decisions.

Very shortly after taking the co GM position, Lara helped Adrian pick a new market and come up with a new brand for the franchise. The relocation out of Windsor unfortunately became the only realistic outcome to keep the franchise financially healthy. The fans in the area were passionate for sure but a bigger market in an area that lived and breathed hockey was a good business choice to make.

The Wendigo became the Olympiens and moved to Montréal. During their first season in la Belle Province, and Lara's first full season as co general manager, the team qualified for the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, and won their first Dynasty Cup.