U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the appointment of marketing veteran Andy McKeon to the CMO position. As CMO, McKeon will lead U.S. Ski & Snowboard marketing, communications and partner support.
McKeon assumes these roles as Chief Commercial Officer Dan Barnett steps aside for a move back to the United Kingdom.
“I dreamed about it as a kid—and finally, I’ve made the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team,” McKeon said. “It took me longer than I expected, but I never gave up. I was somewhat hampered by being an impressively slow ski racer, but I never let that put me off. Don’t give up on your dreams, kids!”
McKeon will report to U.S. Ski & Snowboard President and CEO Tiger Shaw and will be tasked with elevating the awareness of the organizations’ world-class athlete roster with a keen focus on digital strategy, including social media, content production/distribution, the account executive team, merchandise and support of athletes. U.S. Ski & Snowboard will merge its content, creative and communications groups, working as one mini-agency with McKeon leading the charge.
“I am thrilled to have Andy joining us,” said Shaw. “Andy is a world-class strategic leader in the sports world, with a track record and the experience to keep our teams out front. Our partners will enjoy the content and authentic stories of our athletes pursuing their dreams. It’s all about the members of our teams and their amazing successes.”
McKeon honed his storytelling skills at some of the best ad agencies in the world including Wieden + Kennedy in Portland, Oregon, where he worked on the Nike account and at Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. The digital world fascinated McKeon, so he moved his family to Silicon Valley as a Director in Apple’s large internal Marcom team. He then spent six years at Facebook Inc. helping many of their most valuable advertisers and agencies transition to the digital age, including U.S. Ski & Snowboard partners Visa Inc. and Liberty Mutual Insurance.
He has also has been working with U.S. Ski & Snowboard as an advisor since 2013 and has worked with a number of athletes in various disciplines. McKeon has twice been a keynote speaker at the organization’s annual Partner Summit, tapping his lifelong passion for all snow sports, the mountains and the snow community at large. In his role at Facebook Inc., McKeon helped create a Facebook Live session with double Olympic champion Mikaela Shiffrin (Edwards, Colo.) and Sheryl Sandberg, and orchestrated live streams from events such as the World Cup Finals in Aspen.
“We have nearly 200 athletes in a diverse array of thrilling sports. Every one of them has a different and amazing story to tell. We are going to use our left and right brains to harness all the powerful and fast-changing channels like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Google, Twitter, TV and more to help them share their captivating stories and those of our incredible partners, with the world,” McKeon added. “Already we have Super Bowl-type reach every week – EVERY WEEK! – across all of our athlete and Team channels. The digital transformation means it’s an incredibly exciting time to be in marketing.”
“U.S. Ski & Snowboard also has the opportunity to play a more purpose-driven role in meaningful areas such as environmental preservation. We can’t take the mountains for granted. I’m committed to grow and spread the love of snow sports” says McKeon. “As a parent who is battling screen time and other cultural pulls, I think it’s the most wonderful family activity – quality time together, health and fitness, it teaches kids tenacity, executive functioning, independence, gives them a sense of community and as I’ve found – a lifetime of adventures and friendships.”
Originally hailing from the mighty hills of Australia, McKeon has an “unimpressive” (his word) background in alpine ski racing as a former member of the Australian National Team, is an avid and enthusiastic NASTAR participant, keen snowboarder and mogul skier – knees pending. He, his wife Anna and two children – Lauren (8) and Tucker (10) and dog Tiki (2 – 14 in dog years) will be relocating to Park City, Utah from Menlo Park, California. Lauren has high hopes of becoming an Olympic skier and a member of the PC Bladies, and Anna and Tucker are eager to kickstart their biathlon careers.
