GREEN BAY, Wisconsin – Peter Platten, a former Green Bay Packers Executive Committee lead director and longtime member of the Board of Directors, died on Tuesday at the age of 80, a statement issued by the Packers on Thursday said.

“I will be forever grateful to Pete. He took a big chance in hiring me, someone without Green Bay ties,” Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy said of Platten directing the search process in 2007 that led to Murphy being elected President and CEO.

“I loved working with him. He had a brilliant business mind and nobody knew the history of the Packers better than him.”

“Our condolences go out to his wife, Bonnie, and his entire family,” Murphy said Thursday.

Platten was first elected to the Packers Board of Directors in 1980. Subsequently elected to the Executive Committee as Secretary in 1985, he became lead director and Vice President in 2007, serving in that role until becoming Director Emeritus in 2010.

Former Packers President/CEO Bob Harlan credited Platten’s longtime financial experience as crucial in charting the organization’s course in the late 1990s.

“As a longtime member of the executive committee, Pete brought extreme value because of his background in banking,” said Harlan. “He and John Underwood, in their long-term planning, helped us determine in 1999 that we would need to borrow $10 million just to fund our operations by 2004. That foresight prompted us to expedite our plans to redevelop Lambeau Field.”