Keith Dawkins. CEO, The First Tee (photo courtesy The First Tee)
Keith Dawkins is Chief Executive Officer of The First Tee, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit youth sports organization whose mission is to grow the game of golf by transforming the experience that kids (and families) have with the sport. Dawkins replaced long-time leader Joe Louis Barrow, Jr. as CEO of The First Tee. Barrow retired at the end of 2017, after 18 years with the organization. With support from The First Tee’s Founding Partners—the LPGA, the Masters Tournament, PGA of America, PGA TOUR and the USGA, Dawkins is leading an organization that delivers and creates initiatives for kids (and families) by engaging fans, promoting civic responsibility and championing diversity and inclusion in everything it does.
The 25-year veteran of media and entertainment is an expert in the kids and family space. He most recently served as Executive Vice President of Nickelodeon where he oversaw tween/teen-targeted and animation-based networks TeenNick and Nicktoons, as well as Nick Jr. and NickMusic. He also led key multi-screen initiatives including NickSplat, targeting adults who love ’90s Nickelodeon, and Nickelodeon Sports. Through Nickelodeon Sports, he helped forge relationships with all major sports leagues to create new, multi-platform content and drive marketing events and initiatives, including an on-site presence at Super Bowl LI in Houston. While at Nickelodeon, Dawkins led the engagement between the PGA TOUR and Nickelodeon, which resulted in a PGA TOUR-themed weekend on Nickelodeon and an on-site branded kids’ zone at THE PLAYERS Championship.
Dawkins served on numerous advisory boards during his time at Viacom that fostered diversity and inclusion, including the Viacom Office of Global Inclusion Advisory Committee. He joined Viacom in 2000 as a supervising producer for VH1 News, and prior to that, was a Fox News Channel producer, where he was part of the network’s original launch team. “Nickelodeon was a great training ground for me. Timing is everything.”
Some pretty big shoes to fill
“Joe Louis Barrow has done some wonderful things,” said Dawkins during a telephone interview with AAGD, and he is not worried about filling the shoes of her predecessor. “I am just worried about my shoes, who I am, my background, my expertise and the things that I have been fortunate enough to be trained in. I will continue to be myself and let people know how this attaches to our strategy (deleted in) moving forward at The First Tee.” Dawkins is a graduate of the CTAM Executive Management Program at Harvard Business School and the National Association of Multi-ethnicity In Communications (NAMIC) Leadership Program at UCLA’s Anderson Graduate School of Management.
Getting settled in
“It’s been great getting settled in here,” says the holder of a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication from Ramapo College and currently sitting on their Board of Governors. “It’s a good time for me to take on a new challenge in my life and, it’s a really exciting time to be in this space, where (deleted people) diversity and inclusion is one of our strategic pillars.” I have an enthusiastic team and we are excited about this audience, which is the same audience for me–kids and sports.”
Pushing forward The First Tee
To get things rolling, Dawkins has hired a who new team that brings expertise in research, communications, (deleted press) marketing, digital/social media and events. “We have a bigger, more dynamic team with different ways of looking at revenue, understand media, entertainment, and storytelling.” This is how Dawkins is pushing forward on the success of The First Tee. “Understanding the audience is the key to staying in the forefront of challenges,” he says. “What I want people to really understand is that this is an opportunity that we (The First Tee) have never had. There are 50 million kids in the US. under the age of 11; they are the most diverse group in our nation’s history, and half of them are kids of color.” Dawkins is confident that his work at The First Tee will continue to grow the game, and make a positive impact among kids in and around the golf industry to really transform what this whole industry looks like.
Dawkins began as incoming CEO in October before formally taking over for Barrow on Jan. 1, 2018.
