Photo by: CHRIS CONDON / PGA TOUR
O
ver the past year, PGA Tour Chief Administrative Officer Allison Keller has played an integral part in the seamless transition within the tour’s top leadership since Commissioner Jay Monahan took over from Tim Finchem in January.
Allison Keller
PGA Tour // Chief administrative officer
“You retain what is great but still focus on a new vision,” Keller said. “It is helping Jay secure the right people in the right seats.”
Keller joined the PGA Tour in 1999 and has worked in a number of key roles, including vice president of human resources, assistant general counsel, and executive director of the tour’s player anti-doping program.
She is now the highest-ranked female executive at the tour, overseeing corporate affairs, human resources, facilities and travel, government affairs, and communications.
It’s a wide-ranging, critical role within the tour’s Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., headquarters as its 900 employees adapt to new leadership and new management.
Keller is also keenly involved in the tour’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
The tour’s workforce is 50 percent female, and 20 percent of the organization’s new hires are multicultural, nearly double the rate prior to the tour’s renewed diversity focus that began in 2014.
“We continue to have very low turnover even though we have had a lot of change,” she said. “Starting in 2014, we have been getting really active in diversity and inclusion.”
- Where born: Miami.
- Education: University of Central Florida, B.S., political science; J.D., University of Florida.
- Attribute I look for when hiring: Grit or ability to overcome challenges. “Showing up to the fire with your own canteen full.”
- Networking tip I’ve learned: Take those extra 10 or 20 minutes to make the call, send the email or note, make the introduction.
- Best advice I’ve received for career development: Take that risk — the job assignment or role outside of your comfort zone. The best professional growth will come from doing something that risks failure in a humiliating, even public, way!
- Sports business industry can foster a healthier work-life balance by: Leaders modeling unplugging when off work unless an emergency.
- If I had it to do over again, I would: Have learned to play golf before I had children.
- Woman in sports business I’d most like to meet: Dawn Hudson, CMO of the NFL. I like her direct nature and also her passion for emotional connection with the product. She also seems to love a challenge!
- Is discussion about challenges women face working in sports necessary or played out? Necessary.
- Causes supported: St. Francis House for the homeless, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Board, Sanctuary on 8th Street after-school program for kids.
