KPMG has been a diligent and committed partner of women’s golf for a number of years and on Wednesday the seventh KPMG Women’s Leadership Summit will kick off with a plethora of big-time guests and networking opportunities abound.
Paul Knopp, the Chair and Chief Executive Officer at KPMG, was on site at Atlanta Athletic Club on Tuesday to chat more about KPMG’s efforts and who will be part of the virtual Leadership Summit.
This year award-winning TV and film director Patty Jenkins (Monster, Wonder Woman) will be the keynote speaker. Kara Lawson, an Olympic basketball champion and current head coach at Duke, along with Dr. Condoleezza Rice and former world No.1 golfer Stacy Lewis will also be part of the summit.
KPMG is planning to bring together about 300 women from 100 leading companies, nominated by their CEOs, to come hear from business, political, and sports leaders – and be inspired.
The women who are part of the summit are one or two steps away from the C-Suite, Knopp said, and the objective from KPMG is to bring even more women into those important roles at companies across the country.
“We couldn’t be prouder to host this event,” said Knopp.
One hundred percent of the net proceeds of the summit at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship support the KPMG Future Leaders Program.
Women that are in high school and are identified as women in need, now have access to college scholarships, leadership development, and mentoring, Knopp said.
Almost $3.5-million in scholarships have been awarded over the last seven years to 122 women.
This year, for the first time, KPMG is also doing a ‘Birdies for Books’ campaign. For every birdie, 10 books will be donated by KPMG to underserved schools in the Atlanta area.
Knopp said KPMG decided as a company to put their marketing dollars behind women’s golf to help the game become more equal to the men’s game.
“It's about closing that disparity and creating more equity. We've always thought about it that way, and we've always thought about using it as a platform not only for women in golf, but women in business,” he said.
“We're committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion at KPMG, and we think we do our part by hosting the women's summit, by being the title sponsor of the KPMG Women's PGA Championship, and we couldn't be prouder to be in that position, and we look at it as a long-term partnership, the PGA of America and the LPGA Tour, and it's just a great partnership.”
Knopp was also on-hand to help announce KPMG as the official data and analytics advisor to the LPGA Tour on Tuesday of Championship week.
The game-changing performance insights and analytics program will be implanted across the LPGA Tour and launched this week at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, offering up golf fans the opportunity to see just how good golfers on the LPGA Tour truly are (with the opportunity to view strokes gained, proximity averages, and more data points) and amplified on the LPGA Tour’s media landscape.
“With KPMG Performance Insights, more data will be captured, analyzed and integrated from every shot and every round than ever before,” said Knopp. “The platform will change the way in which players, coaches, media and fans experience women’s golf.”
The Women’s Leadership Summit, meanwhile, has helped change the way leadership structures look at companies across the United States.
Twenty percent of the women that have participated in the summit the last seven years have been promoted up into the C-Suite.
“That's one huge impact statement there,” said Knopp.
And, two-thirds of LPGA Tour events, according to Tour chief communications officer Roberta Bowman, have a women’s leadership event of some kind now. It all started with KPMG.
“This marriage of the best of women on the golf course with the best of women in business,” said Bowman, “is really a winning idea.”
