Scholarship Tribute Dinner
Oh, what a night!
Read more about the success of the 2024 Scholarship Tribute Dinner.
Meet the Honorees
Kevin M. McGovern
Kevin M. McGovern is Chairman and CEO of McGovern Capital. McGovern Capital serves as an investment, strategy, and licensing principal and advisor to global businesses. Through McGovern Capital and its affiliates, Kevin and MGC have co-founded over 25 companies, six of which have become world or category leaders. Kevin has also been lead negotiator/principal in over a dozen global joint ventures.
McGovern Capital currently has over 20 investments in diversified segments, such as telemedicine; water filtration; innovative food and beverage companies; unique skincare technologies using CBD; the drug development of medical cannabis; esports; various impact and environmental opportunities, such as rare earth minerals, plastics-to-fuel, and carbon underground agricultural products; and has partnered with several sports personalities and on numerous sports projects.
Kevin was a founder of SoBe Beverages, the fastest growing beverage company ever in the United States that was later sold to Pepsi, and McGovern Capital was one of three owners of KX Industries, L.P., the largest manufacturer and worldwide source of carbon water purification filters. Kevin has spent the last several decades working to provide clean drinking water to people with the worst water contamination issues.
Kevin teaches courses in global innovation at the business schools of both Cornell University and Stanford University and has taught at MIT, Harvard University, NTU Singapore, and KAUST in Saudi Arabia. He is a Trustee Emeritus of Cornell University, serves on the Board of the Smithsonian, is a senior advisor to Consumer Reports, serves on the Board of the Baptist Health Foundation/Baptist Health South Florida, and serves on the Doctors Hospital and Miami Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Institute Council.
In addition to his other board appointments, Kevin serves on the Board of Point Hope, providing global assistance to orphans. Because of his involvement with Point of Hope, Kevin has an affinity toward Mount Saint Vincent’s Mott Street Scholarship Program, which provides the benefits of a higher education to youth who have aged out of foster care or who are formerly homeless.
Allen J. West
Allen J. West is a writer, director, executive producer and social impact entrepreneur.
Allen’s past credits include: music supervisor for the Emmy-nominated, four-part original series hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton, Murder in Black & White, which aired on TV One; producer for Mike Tyson’s event series, Iron Mike Productions, which aired on Fox Sports in 2014 and was the number one-rated show on the network that year; creative producer for the television series Give, which won the 2017 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Children’s or Family Viewing Series; executive producer and supporting actor of Life Love Soul, which aired on BET Her in 2018; and director and executive producer of a ten-part opioid epidemic docudrama titled Addition Unplugged, which premiered on A&E in 2019.
In 2020, Allen launched Studio Miami Media, a full-service content and event company with its debut livestream concert featuring reggaeton mega-star Nicky Jam. Recently, Allen co-produced a boxing/music event with boxing legend Floyd Mayweather and professional boxer and mixed martial artist John Gotti, III that streamed live on the Zeus network from inside FLA Live Arena in June 2023.
Allen is also the creative director of CEEK VR, a streaming service for virtual events with more than seven million users and collaborators with top-tier brands and celebrities including Apple, Meta, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Dwayne Wade, U2, and many more.
Allen is currently producing and directing a full-length documentary feature film created to spotlight the challenges and triumphs of foster care youth aging out of the system, titled Foster Dreamzzz, which will be released later in 2024.
Allen is the founder of the Foster Dreamzzz Foundation—which sparked the title of his documentary—a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization powered by GVNG.org, and he sits on the Board of Directors of Florida Foster Care Review, a nonprofit organization established in 1989 that advances the safety, stability, and success of children in foster care.
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Dinner Committee |
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| Chair | Peter D. DeNunzio The Dwight Company |
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| Co-Chair | Noreen M. Culhane ’72 Retired, EVP NYSE Euronext |
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| Co-Chair | Pamela J. Newman PJN Strategies LLC |
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| The Honorable Jonathan W. Burkan Former Member, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council |
Alex Ehrlich Percapita Group, Inc. |
| John F. Caruso ’82 Retired, ABC Television/Walt Disney Company |
Kelvin Gentles ’05 Archdiocese of New York |
| Lawrence W. Casey Managing Partner, Absolutely Pro |
Deborah Hamilton Hamilton Advisors, Inc. |
| Robert Lorenzo Eden Roc Capital |
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