LOWELL, MA. Lowell High School graduate Ted Leonsis has been unanimously elected as the new chairman of the National Hockey League's Board of Governors, the highest leadership position a league owner can hold.

Leonsis, the controlling majority owner of the Washington Capitals and chairman, managing partner and CEO of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, replaces Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs, who stepped down after 19 years in the role. Calgary Flames Governor Murray Edwards was voted to serve as vice-chairman.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman made the announcement Tuesday.

"I'm more strategy, big picture, vision, new media. Murray is operations, finance," Leonsis said in an NHL release. "He reads the minutes of the reports. He understands the balance sheets. In my 28 years the league has grown so dramatically. Gary is obviously the longest tenured of the commissioners, but the growth of the league has been unbelievable, and the turnover and change in ownership, we're a big public company."

The Friedkin Group, led by CEO Dan Friedkin, has expressed interest in bringing a second NHL team into the state of Texas, in Houston or Austin. Expansion is a major topic for the league as franchise values continue to soar.

"The role that we play in our cities, in our communities, we're becoming the most important enterprises in many of our cities," Leonsis said. "The social responsibility and the role we are playing all comes from growth. More customers, more sponsors. You've got to keep that spiral going up. So having that growth dynamic and mindset, I think, is what our job is at the executive level."

The Capitals, led by Alexander Ovechkin, the NHL's all-time leading goal scorer, are expected to be one of the league's top teams this season. The franchise captured the Stanley Cup in 2018.

Leonsis is also the controlling majority owner of the NBA's Washington Wizards and the WNBA's Washington Mystics.

A 1973 graduate of Lowell High, Leonsis became the first member of his family to attend a university. He went on to study at Georgetown University. Leonsis grew up in Brooklyn, but wrote in a LinkedIn post that Lowell "will always hold a special place in my heart."

"It's where I went to high school, where I started my journey to Georgetown University, where my career with computers began at Wang Laboratories and where I began to see what was possible for myself and my future," he wrote. "Those early experiences helped shape my career path and instilled values that have stayed with me ever since. The Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution, Lowell was built on innovation. It's a city defined by a strong, loyal community and a culture of hard work, one that leaves a lasting impression on everyone who grows up there."