Kevin Hill of the Pebble Beach Company is on the board of the Chamber, and I really wanted to spotlight him since 1. I’ve heard great things about him from Kati & Kimberlie, and 2. He’s a fellow Santa Clara Bronco! Some may call it bias; correct people will call it SCU loyalty. 

 Kevin has been on the Peninsula for about three and a half years, and he is the VP of Sponsorships for the Pebble Beach Company. Kevin is responsible for managing and growing Pebble’s Brand Partnership and event sponsorship portfolios.  Current Brand Partners include Lexus, TaylorMade, Rolex, Coca-Cola, and many others.  Ralph Lauren is one of Pebble’s newest partnerships and features a new Ralph Lauren store in Pebble’s retail arcade at the Lodge. Before he moved to Carmel, he worked in sponsorship with the Washington Nationals for 11 seasons, including a World Series Championship in 2019. He’s always had a passion for sports marketing and chose to come back to his golf industry roots after having the previous decade consumed by baseball. 

Kevin grew up in Seattle which is so funny given how big the Seattle-to-Santa Clara pipeline is. What gets him out of bed and into the office every day is knowing what a great place Pebble Beach is to work, and that it’s super rewarding being able to create such a memorable, high-quality experiences for visitors and guests from the moment they step on property.  

Kevin credits a lot of his success in his current role to the collaborative environment at Pebble Beach.  His deals can have an impact across the entire organization, so he works cross functionally to get input and support from those key departments. As Kouzes and Posner say, “leadership is the art of mobilizing others to want to struggle for shared aspirations,” which is exactly what Kevin and his team do: working together for something they all want for the company.  

Kevin loves working in this area because of its small-town feel, especially compared to Washington D.C. There’s so much community participation despite the small population, and it really embodies that “it takes a village” aspect. Looking ahead, he's looking forward to the 127th U.S. Open Championship next June, as it will be the seventh time Pebble Beach has hosted it, as well as the Pebble Beach’s annual Food and Wine Festival next April, which is an event that he is currently securing sponsors for. .  

The reason Kevin is an active Chamber member is because it allows him and the Pebble Beach Company to support local businesses.  Joining the Chamber helped him get more involved in his new community when he first moved here, and it opened a lot of doors. He now serves as the Chamber’s sponsorship chair, which came pretty naturally given his role at Pebble Beach. When asked if he would recommend membership to business owners, he said absolutely. He thinks the Chamber offers a wide variety of benefits for its members and can address the business needs of its diverse membership base. But he says you need to be an active participant within the Chamber to get the most out of it. It's a two-way street with the Chamber, not a passive membership. You get what you give!  

His piece of advice for someone fresh out of college: you need to love what you do. It kind of goes back to the question of what gets you out of bed in the morning. Doing what you love makes it not feel like a job. His other piece of advice: keep your network warm and never close doors with people. A former employer who actually connected Kevin with his job at Pebble Beach hadn’t even worked with him in 20 years. He just reached out one day and said Kevin would be great for the job.