Kraig Kann, BJ '88 | Former Golf Channel host and LPGA Executive | Founder of Kann Advisory Group
Jeff Rude, BJ '76 | Multimedia Journalist covering the PGA Tour
Join us for a MIZ Talk unlike any other...#MizzouMade at the Masters! Journalism alums Kraig Kann, BJ '88 and Jeff Rude, BJ '76 will talk about their careers covering and working in professional golf in advance of the 2021 Masters Tournament.
Kraig Kann, BJ '88
Founder and Managing Director of Kann Advisory Group
Former Golf Channel host and LPGA Executive
Kraig Kann spent 25 years working in television, including 17 at the Golf Channel/NBC where he was an original on-air member and ultimately the lead studio host. In 2011, he made a career pivot serving as the Chief Communications Officer for the Ladies Professional Golf Association. In that role, he led the LPGA organization’s branding and marketing efforts across all media platforms during five years of unprecedented growth that included recognition in 2015 as a finalist for “Sports League of the Year” by Sports Business Journal.
In 2016, Kraig founded Kann Advisory Group where he serves as Managing Director of the organization providing strategic media, marketing and communications consulting, plus media training, branding, and presentation skills coaching. His vast experience on all sides of the media makes him an industry influencer, respected spokesperson and requested speaker.
Kann’s platform has widened with roles as the weekly show host of Connected with Kraig Kann on SiriusXM, his growing podcast Tracks To Success and the January 2021 release of his book Can You Get Our Attention? which quickly reached Top 25 status on the Amazon Best Seller List.
Jeff Rude, BJ '76
Multimedia Journalist covering the PGA Tour
Respected multimedia storyteller Jeff Rude has won numerous national writing awards during more than four decades as a sports journalist after graduating with a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Missouri in 1976.
Jeff covered the PGA Tour for three decades, including 19 years as a senior writer and columnist for Golfweek magazine (1995-2014) and four years as a national golf writer at the Dallas Morning News. He co-hosted the nightly national TV prime-time Clubhouse show on Back9Network in 2014-15. He also was a regular panelist on the Golf Channel’s Grey Goose 19th Hole show for three years and co-hosted a weekly national radio show on ESPN from 2005-2007. He covered 82 consecutive major golf championships, and more than 100 total.
Prior to focusing on golf, he worked as deputy sports editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and as assistant sports editor at the Dallas Morning News during his 20 years at daily newspapers. An Evans Scholar while at Missouri, Rude has been involved in all major sports as a journalist and is an entertaining public speaker. While in college he caddied on the PGA Tour.