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P20
December 2013
alumni
K
evin Warren
was an Ivy League basketball
champion as a freshman at the University of
Pennsylvania. He won a Super Bowl ring as
an executive with the NFL’s St. Louis Rams. And he
is currently the highest-ranking African-American
business executive working for an NFL team as a
member of the Minnesota Vikings’ front office.
And yet, Warren said the best decision he ever made was to attend Grand
Canyon University, which was then Grand Canyon College.
“I had an absolutely incredible educational experience at GCU,” said Warren,
vice president of legal affairs and chief administrative officer for the Vikings.
“Professors encouraged me to get into business. They changed my life.”
Warren, 49, transferred to Grand Canyon after two years of playing NCAA
Division I basketball at Penn and a brief stint at Arizona State University, earning a
bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1986. He played two seasons for
the then-NAIA Antelopes and was inducted into the GCU Hall of Fame in 2012.
He scored 1,118 points in his career.
Encouragement from professors to pursue higher education, with an ultimate
goal of blending business, law and sports into a career, and advice from his
parents to choose a career based on passion, not money, led to a career as
a sports agent, which opened the door to the NFL. Warren took his studies
seriously during college, with a textbook rarely leaving his side. He currently
serves on GCU’s corporate board of directors.
“Kevin was an individual who was very disciplined with everything from
basketball to school,” said
Rod Monteverde
, Warren’s teammate at Grand
Canyon. “He would take his books into the bathroom stall with him or would
highlight terms while getting his ankles taped before practice, and we would
say to him, ‘Kevin, what are you doing?’
“He took advantage of every opportunity he had, and that is why he is where
he is today.”
After graduation, the Tempe native earned both an MBA from ASU and
a law degree from the University of Notre Dame in four years. He began
his NFL career in 1997 as vice president of player programs and football
legal counsel with the Rams and was with the team during its Super Bowl
title season of 1999. He later served as senior vice president of business
operations and general counsel for the Detroit Lions, where he was named
one of the top 40 Detroit business leaders younger than 40.
Warren acted as the lead negotiator during the acquisition of the Vikings by
current owner and president
Mark Wilf
, prior to joining the executive team
in 2005. Wilf characterized Warren as a valued adviser to the team and an
asset to the sports community in Minnesota. In 2014, Warren will have spent a
decade with the Vikings and 16 seasons in the NFL.
Eric Grubman
, executive vice president of the NFL for the last decade, has
worked with Warren on business and legal issues pertaining to the Vikings.
“(Kevin) has been in a lot of tough situations where he has been able to bring
people together and get things done,” Grubman said. “What he is able to do
for the Vikings is invaluable.”
Looking back at his path, Warren said he felt blessed with the opportunities
GCU provided.
“I thought I was going to (GCU) to continue my basketball career, but it turned
out to be much more,” he said. “It was about obtaining an exceptional education,
meeting great people and really revealing to me to do the best I could do
every day that God blesses me with another day on earth.”
■
Discipline took football executive
KevinWarren to the top
Kevin Warren, who has had a lengthy administrative career in the NFL, was inducted
into the GCU Hall of Fame in 2012. Photo courtesy of Minnesota Vikings
– by Cooper Nelson
A PRO AMONG PROS