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Game Changers

Courtney Nally, Ketchum Sports & Entertainment

Photo: COURTNEY NALLY
W
hen Ketchum Sports & Entertainment hired Courtney Nally as its first intern in the summer of 2001, little did the agency know it would turn out to be one of the firm’s greatest personnel decisions.

Since joining Ketchum full time in 2005, Nally has been charged with managing the agency’s sports public relations and talent team. She also has led the development and implementation of the KSE Celebrity & Influencer Engagement team, which counts among its clients Liberty Mutual Insurance, Oakley and Pfizer.

Courtney Nally
Ketchum Sports & Entertainment | Senior Vice President and
General Manager, Entertainment

Her work has played on the world’s biggest sports stages as well. In recent years, Nally was tasked with handling Liberty Mutual’s first partnership with Team USA. Nally paired more than 50 Olympic athletes with the company to participate in more than 150 Olympic-themed activities leading up to the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

But Nally counts her work several years back with the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on behalf of client Tostitos among her most memorable executions. During a halftime event at the 2011 game, military families were reunited with an active duty relative.

“At the end of the day, this is a job,” Nally said, “but you realize you really can make some special moments along the way.”

— Anna Hrushka

  • Notable professional achievements: Securing a three-part story on CNN about World T.E.A.M. Sports, a nonprofit organization I worked with as a client my first year out of college. We helped organize a bike ride between Ground Zero and Washington, D.C., for abled and disabled athletes. It was an organization that I personally believed in, so to secure worldwide coverage for the good they were doing was by far one of the most memorable successes of my career.
  • Best advice received: Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Those lessons learned are just as important as the ones learned along the way to success.
  • Cause supported: Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I have done a number of triathlons to raise money for them through Team in Training.
  • Most memorable sporting event attended: The Masters in 2010. Everyone had always described it as a magical place, and it exceeded all of my expectations.
  • If my colleagues were asked to describe me, they would say I: Call a spade a spade.

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