Keenan Jeppesen
Director, Athletics & Recreation, McMaster University
Director, Athletics & Recreation, McMaster University
MBA
2011
When Keenan Jeppesen stepped onto McMaster’s campus as a Co-op MBA student and varsity basketball player, an athletics administration career wasn’t on his radar. After earning an economics degree, he was still figuring out where business school might take him. For Jeppesen, the MBA created space to explore through experience.
“I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet, and looking back, it’s a natural feeling at that age,” he says. “What I tell MBA students today is not to put pressure on themselves to choose a role. Think about what motivates and satisfies you, and match a job to that.”
Co-op as a turning point
That mindset carried over into his co-op search. Rather than following a set career plan, Jeppesen stayed flexible, prioritizing location. It led him to Washington, D.C., where he joined Viacom’s Black Entertainment Television as a business operations intern before moving to New York in a pricing and inventory role. These roles marked his first meaningful exposure to the professional world.
“Co-op forced me to seek out roles that mirrored what my future career could look like,” he says. “Being in that intentional space was impactful and set a foundation of seeking out opportunities, striving to do well and gaining skills that would lead to the next step.”
It was an approach that shaped Jeppesen’s career. After graduating in 2011, he spent four years at Viacom, advancing through roles in revenue analysis and sales strategy. By the time he stepped into a vice-president role in marketing and media relations at Ubiquiti Networks in Los Angeles, Jeppesen had a clearer understanding of what the MBA had given him.
“The MBA prepared me not just through practical tools like SWOT analysis and building pro forma statements, but through transferable skills,” Jeppesen says. “Collaboration, strategic thinking, motivating people — those show up in any leadership role.”
Coming full circle
Despite strong external markers of success such as pay and career stability, Jeppesen found himself lacking a sense of fulfillment. After two years in Los Angeles, he stepped away to reassess his path. That decision ultimately brought him back to Canada — and back to McMaster.
This time, it wasn’t as a student, but as a volunteer coach with the men’s basketball team. At the same time, he worked in consulting and as director of outreach for the Onyx Initiative,
which is dedicated to facilitating job-market entry for Black post-secondary students. This position, and reconnecting with the university, clarified what he was looking for: a way to combine his professional skill set with community impact.
“I wanted to use different parts of my skill set — the strategy, the critical thinking — to affect people,” he says. “I realized what really filled me up was supporting the McMaster community.”
He’s been doing exactly that ever since. In 2018, Jeppesen joined McMaster as director of Basketball Operations. He has since held a series of leadership roles across student affairs. Today, as director of Athletics and Recreation, Jeppesen oversees a broad student-facing portfolio spanning varsity athletics, recreation programming and community engagement.
“To have this type of role in the community is a full-circle moment,” he says. “My experiences are not linear, but each one played a part in shaping the leader I am today. Those important growth moments were the best things that came out of the MBA.”