After graduating, Harvey played semi-professional soccer in Europe. She represented FSV Frankfurt of Germany between 1988 and 1991, as well as Hammarby IF and Tyresö FF of Sweden in 1993 and 1994 respectively.[4]
Off the field, Harvey served on U.S. Soccer's board of directors for 12 years, including 5 years on the Executive Committee; and on the U.S. Olympic Committee.[3][5] In 2003, Harvey was hired by FIFA to become its Director of Development, becoming the first woman and first American hired by the international governing body to run a division.[3] In this role, Harvey was responsible for managing the US$160 million per year development budget for FIFA, including such programs as the Financial Assistance Program, the Goal Programme, and FIFA's education or course programs. She was also responsible for FIFA's activities to develop women's soccer, futsal and beach soccer, and to oversee FIFA's sports medicine activities. Mary was involved in the reform process at FIFA and launched the #WomeninFIFA campaign with Australian Moya Dodd. The campaign was successful in achieving gender inclusion as a core tenet of the reforms passed in 2016. Prior to joining FIFA, Harvey was the CEO of a US$15 million sports and fitness company, and worked in the management consulting industry for both Deloitte. and Accenture.[6][7]
In 2008, Harvey left FIFA to return to her native United States to become the chief operating officer for Women's Professional Soccer, the new women's professional soccer league in the United States.[8] Harvey left WPS in 2010 after two seasons.
In 2017, Harvey joined the bid team to bring the 2026 FIFA World Cup to North America. Harvey was responsible for writing the United 2026 Human Rights Strategy, the first of its kind for a mega-sporting-event. The 2026 FIFA World Cup was awarded to Canada, Mexico and the United States at the 2018 FIFA Congress in Moscow.
Mary has served as a sport envoy for the U.S. State Department’s Sports Diplomacy Division on several occasions, including missions to Iraq, Jordan, Canada and Mexico. Mary also serves as the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Green Sports Alliance, an organization dedicated to leveraging the cultural and market influence of sports to inspire sports leagues, teams, venues, their partners and millions of fans to embrace renewable energy, healthy food, recycling, water efficiency, species preservation, safer chemicals and other environmentally preferable practices.
She is currently the chief executive of the Center for Sport and Human Rights – a human rights organization for the world of sport.[9]
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