With Outsider’s Perspective, Kevin M. Ring Aspires to ‘Smart Growth’ for USA Swimming

With Outsider’s Perspective, Kevin M. Ring Aspires to ‘Smart Growth’ for USA Swimming

Kevin M. Ring’s work expertise in sports activities has minimize throughout completely different dimensions. He’s been within the for-profit sector and on the governing physique aspect. He’s been part of established manufacturers and comparatively younger ones. He’s gotten a style of the Olympic motion.

Straight out of school, he labored because the assistant director of communications for Lake Placid’s Olympic Regional Development Authority, getting a way of the status of the Olympic motion. Later, over a decade because the PGA of America’s Chief Marketing Officer and Chief Revenue Officer, he noticed the worth of a mission-driven group with a protracted historical past.

Those two resonant threads united with the chance to steer USA Swimming: A protracted-established model inside the Olympic motion with a robust sense of mission. It made the chance to turn into its chief govt officer one thing that he couldn’t move up.

Ring was introduced Thursday as the brand new President and CEO of USA Swimming. He fills a seat that has sat empty for a yr, and he brings an outsider’s perspective that he hopes will probably be conducive to studying and innovating.

“One of the parts that I truly love is having a mission-based background,” Ring stated in an interview with Swimming World. “With PGA of America, that was all volunteer- and mission-based, it was something where I got to see and learn from coaches, learn from people at the grassroots, those people who are that tangible connection to the sport. And what I realized being in the for-profit world in the last four years is that I truly was driven in that area. The ability to give back, the ability to use my skills for the greater good … it’s a way that I can work with a community that’s passionate about what they do.”

Ring was hired after practically 4 years as the president of Legends Global Golf, an organization with a global portfolio of golf experiences. His remit centered on advertising, enterprise growth and partnership administration. He has a protracted historical past of managing enterprise partnership, relationship again to 12 years as a director, then vp at IMG, together with because the managing director of IMG Golf Consulting Practice.

While a lot of that have has been with higher-end merchandise and relationships, his time with the PGA of America instilled an appreciation for the grassroots that appears important for USA Swimming. His work with the PGA included driving “ongoing change, ongoing innovation, ongoing modernization.” He views his new mandate as that, “Everything you have to do, in my mind, has to be through the lens of not just the high-performance and Olympic level, but has to be through the grassroots.”

“There’s a lot of commercial opportunity to work with the grassroots to find ways of, how do we find a commercial partner that has similar perspective, brand aspirations, similar desires and people that want to be involved in with a group,” he stated. “And how can we find that, from a commercial standpoint, that actually can be supportive? And that doesn’t have to be through these big, revenue-driving ideas.”

Ring’s sporting expertise is fully exterior of swimming. He performed hockey in faculty, is versed in winter sports activities and has primarily labored in golf. But that outsider’s perspective means he enters the job with few preconceived notions.

His early tenure upon taking the job formally on Sept. 17 will probably be spent listening and studying from the subject-matter specialists. He’ll intention to inject his expertise of what works in non-swimming arenas to reinforce their experience – to, in his phrases, “modernize and innovate” on the inspiration that exists.

“There’s a lot of complementary opportunities in that, because there’s so many experts in the swimming community and filling headquarters and people in media and local swim clubs on the board that I’m going to learn from and draw from,” he stated. “But I also am bringing that membership-based past and a business and sports executive past and the ability to, I think, combine the expertise that exists in the building and also my expertise that is outside of swimming. And hopefully that blend and that mesh is something that is in the best interest of everybody.”

Ring posits the 2028 Olympics as a “once-in-a-generation opportunity”. While it didn’t essentially issue into why he reentered the Olympic motion at this juncture, it does inform a lot of what his consideration will level towards.

The subsequent three years are an important alternative to capitalize on within the sport. Ring’s mandate is to convey what he calls “smart growth” of the group. That extends effectively past what occurs in Los Angeles.

“We’ve got to look at opportunities for smart growth with this,” he stated. “And when I say smart growth, it’s making sure that we’re putting money, putting investment towards places where we can get more kids in the pool in communities that might be underserved right now, that we’re not putting a lot of time or attention to, to places and pools that don’t have the capacity to grow. Because then that just becomes frustrating for the coaches, the swim clubs and for the people who are trying to get involved in the sport. I think growing that is going to be something that’s going to be important.”