Bill Zito was named General Manager of the Florida Panthers on September 2, 2020. He was promoted to President, Hockey Operations and General Manager on April 15, 2024. He is responsible for the club’s hockey operations, including all matters relating to player personnel, scouting and minor league operations.

In his four-season tenure as general manager, Zito’s Panthers secured their first-ever Stanley Cup championship, made the Stanley Cup Final twice (2022-23, 2023-24), won the club’s first Presidents’ Trophy (2021-22) and captured the Atlantic Division title twice (2021-22, 2023-24). The Cats have made the Stanley Cup Playoffs in all four seasons, the longest postseason streak in club history. Over the past four campaigns, the Panthers have accumulated a 189-88-25 regular season record and lead all teams with 35 playoff wins (35-26). In that span, Florida leads all teams in shots on goal per game (35.8), ranking third in goals per game (3.57).

In 2023-24, the Cats posted the lowest goals against per game (2.41) and shots against per game (27.8) in one season in club history. Securing the Atlantic Division title for the second time in three seasons, Florida posted 110 points (52-24-6 record), the second-highest point total in franchise history behind only their 122-point campaign in Zito’s second season in 2021-22. In the 2024 postseason, the Panthers downed their cross-state rival Tampa Bay Lightning in a playoff series for the first time prior to defeating the Boston Bruins and Presidents’-Trophy winning New York Rangers to earn their second consecutive Cup Final berth, the first team to return to the Final after losing since the 2008-09 Pittsburgh Penguins. In the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, the Cats overcame the star-studded Edmonton Oilers to earn the club’s first-ever championship.

Zito has been a finalist for the Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award in three of his first four seasons (2020-21, 2022-23 and 2023-24), the first general manager in NHL history to do so with a team.

Off the ice, Zito established a first-of-its kind Goaltending Excellence Department, focused on a comprehensive, integrated experience and program for all goalies in the Panthers system and headed by Hockey Hall of Famer and Special Advisor to the GM, Roberto Luongo.

Prior to joining the Panthers, Zito spent seven seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets organization (2013-14 to 2019-2020), serving as assistant general manager for six seasons before his promotion in 2019 to vice president of hockey operations, associate general manager and alternate governor. In 2015-16, Zito was named general manager for Columbus' American Hockey League affiliate, the Cleveland Monsters (then Lake Erie Monsters).

During Zito's first season with the Monsters, the club posted a franchise-record 97 points in the regular season and won its first-ever Calder Cup Championship. The Monsters produced a 15-2 record in the 2016 Calder Cup Playoffs, the best record for a team in four rounds in AHL history.

On the international stage, the Milwaukee, Wisc., native served as general manager for Team USA at the 2018 IIHF World Championship, capturing a bronze medal and posting a 6-2-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record, tied for the best-ever by a U.S. team in tournament play. Zito also served as a member of the management team for the United States at the 2015 IIHF World Championship, winning a bronze medal. He will serve as an assistant general manager for Team USA at the 2025 NHL 4 Nations Face-off and for the 2026 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team.

Prior to his career as an NHL executive, Zito founded and built Acme World Sports in 1995, building it into a world-renowned talent agency for hockey players. He represented Vezina Trophy winners Tim Thomas and Tuukka Rask, Vezina Trophy finalist Antii Niemi, Selke Trophy winner John Madden and All-Stars Kimmo Timonen and Brian Rafalski. Zito graduated from Yale University in 1987, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history. While at Yale, he played three seasons for the Bulldogs Division I men’s ice hockey team. Following his graduation, Zito played one season of professional hockey in Europe before returning home to Wisconsin, where he attended law school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1990-93. There he served as a graduate assistant and assistant coach for the Badgers hockey team as well as a radio color commentator until he graduated with his JD degree in 1993.

While attending high school in Milwaukee, Zito served as bat boy for the 1981 and 1982 Milwaukee Brewers under legendary general manager Harry Dalton, who encouraged Zito to one day pursue a career in management. In 1982, the Brewers owned the best record in Major League Baseball and won the American League pennant before falling to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in the 1982 World Series.

Zito and his wife, Julie, are the parents of twin daughters, Frankie and Gigi and son, Billy.