Alumnus Kenny Yansen ’15 has been recognized in a distinguished cohort of the National Sports Forum (NSF) focused on diversity. Yansen, who earned a Bachelor of Science Sport and Recreation Management from Temple University’s School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management (STHM), is one of 32 individuals in the NSF’s Business of Diversity in Sports and Entertainment 2020 cohort.
This group convenes for the first time in Atlanta on February 8–11, for a program that overlaps with the 25th annual National Sports Forum—a significant gathering of sport business executives in the areas of marketing, sales and sponsorship. The cohort benefits from a series of educational programs and networking opportunities that are central to the NSF’s efforts to identify and increase opportunities for professionals in the field of sport who are women or ethnic minorities.
“The cohort reflects that the NSF recognizes the need for more diversity in leadership positions in front offices,” says Yansen. “The goal is to increase the opportunities for minority sports professionals to have access to the senior-level best practices of revenue-generating responsibilities in the industry, with the hopes of creating a more diverse workplace within sport—which is definitely lacking at the moment.”
As a former intern and employee at multiple sports teams and agencies, Yansen says he noticed a lack of ethnic minorities in the industry. Now he’s eager to see how the NSF experience will help him and his fellow cohort members expand their opportunities. “I’m honored that the committee recognized me at this early stage in my career,” he says. “And I’m grateful and excited to have met others at my same professional level and age range and to learn from them.”
As a manager on the national marketing solutions team for Learfield IMG College, Yansen works with the national sales team to drive incremental sponsorship revenue across the portfolio of universities and colleges that the firm represents. “We engage potential clients to learn their business goals and objectives,” he says, “and then develop marketing partnerships to help them accomplish those business needs.”
Yansen has quite a legacy at STHM, having co-founded Temple’s Sport and Governance Association (SAGA). In 2019, he returned to campus for a panel at the SAGA Sport Business Conference. “It was amazing to see how much the organization has grown to exceed our expectations as co-founders,” Yansen says. “I’m so proud of how students behind us picked up the ball and ran with it.” He is glad to now come back and share with other students the valuable professional experience he has gained.
Yansen says the peer-to-peer connections he made were the highlights of his time at STHM. “The people in my senior seminar are not only some of the smartest I’ve ever met but also some of my closest friends,” he says. “Together we truly supported each other as we developed personally and professionally. It was the greatest semester of my life.”
We wish Yansen much continued success as he continues to represent STHM at a national level as a stellar and forward-looking sport professional.