NHL executive Davis honored with award from New York Urban League

NEW YORK --NHL executive Kim Davis received a diversity leadership champion award from the New York Urban League on Wednesday for leading the NHL's accelerated efforts to combat racism and to make the sport more diverse and inclusive.

Davis, NHL Senior Executive Vice President, Social Impact, Growth Initiatives & Legislative Affairs, received the award at the New York Urban League's Champions of Diversity luncheon at the Plaza Hotel.
"I'm accepting this award and this recognition knowing that the work underway at the NHL is in service of shifting the paradigm," Davis said at the luncheon. "It is a journey, it is not an event, and it is one that we are committed to. Thank you, New York Urban League for the very small part that I am playing at the NHL to build a brighter future for our sport. And I can commit to you, as we all at the NHL will commit, that we will continue this movement because for us it is much more than a moment."
Davis also thanked Commissioner Gary Bettman, who attended the luncheon with Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, "for entrusting me with the work we are undertaking at the NHL.
"It takes strong, courageous leadership to shepherd an organization of 32 independent owners for 30 years," said Davis, who joined the NHL in December 2017 from Teneo, where she was a senior managing director and head of the company's corporate responsibility & inclusive leadership practice. "I can honestly say that working with Gary for the past five years has been one of the highlights of my corporate career."

Founded in 1910, the New York Urban League is among the nation's leading civil rights organizations. Its mission is to enable Black Americans and other underserved communities to secure a first-class education, economic self-reliance and equal respect for their civil rights through programs, services and advocacy in the city.
Its Champions of Diversity award recognizes individuals and organizations for developing new and innovative diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and practices within their organizations or communities.
New York Urban League president and CEO Arva Rice said Davis and the NHL were honored for the "commitment to diversifying its audience, its commitment to looking at diversity within its organization, to supporting and promoting people of color and women and just really being at the forefront of this work and setting an example for other sports leagues."
Past award recipients include the NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball, the United States Tennis Association, NBCUniversal, McDonald's Corporation, American Express, American Airlines, The New York Times and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.
Davis said it was gratifying and humbling to receive the award from a civil rights organization in the same city where the NHL is headquartered.
"The award signifies that the League is seen in the New York City mainstream as being one of the active partners focused on combating any kind of exclusion across any marginalized group," she said. "And that is something that we haven't necessarily seen as a recognition for our particular league, so this is a very big deal for the NHL."
The NHL accelerated its efforts to combat racism in society and hockey and to make the sport more inclusive and welcoming following a series of high-profile incidents, including the murder of George Floyd, a Black man who died while in the custody of police in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020.
The League embarked on a series of initiatives, including all League employees receiving diversity and inclusion training. At the club level, the League hosted a series of "Courageous Conversations" related to race, equity, diversity and inclusion.

The NHL and its 32 teams released their inaugural Diversity & Inclusion Report in October. The comprehensive document detailed efforts by the League and its teams in recent years and included a groundbreaking study of the NHL workforce at both League and team levels.
The report showed that 22 teams have launched or were in the process of launching mentorship/fellowship/hiring programs to develop BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and female talent to work in hockey operations or front office roles.
It detailed the progress of people of color and women in executive positions, including Mike Grier becoming the NHL's first Black general manager when he was hired by the San Jose Sharks in July 2022.
He joined several other Black employees who hold key C-suite jobs in the NHL, including Florida Panthers assistant general manager Brett Peterson; Tampa Bay Lightning chief operating officer Mark Pitts; Carolina Hurricanes general counsel Nigel Wheeler; Pittsburgh Penguins chief people officer and general counsel Tracey McCants Lewis; Arizona Coyotes executive vice president, ticketing and strategy Anthony Horton; Chicago Blackhawks general ounsel Marcus LeBeouf; Philadelphia Flyers vice president of government and external affairs for Comcast Spectacor Joe Meade; Seattle Kraken senior vice president and general counsel for Climate Pledge Arena Hewan Teshome; and Kraken vice president, strategy and business intelligence Kendall Boyd-Tyson.
Six women have also been hired as assistant general managers: Emilie Castonguay and Cammi Granato (Vancouver Canucks), Meghan Hunter (Blackhawks), Dr. Hayley Wickenheiser (Toronto Maple Leafs), Kate Madigan (New Jersey Devils) and Alexandra Mandrycky (Kraken).
Davis said though the NHL has made progress, there is still much to do in hockey and the corporate world.
"I believe that the real work of DEI requires discussions about shared values," she said. "Balance sheets without value systems don't add up to mission-driven, high-performing, talent retaining enterprises, and this simple truth will affect competitiveness and the bottom line long term."