Kevin Keeshan

Over the course of his career as a news reporter, news manager and news executive, I know Kevin Keeshan to be responsible for introducing hundreds of journalists (if not more) to IRE. He is a vocal supporter and cheerleader of our organization and has encouraged the journalists who work for him to attend IRE conferences and to apply the training they received in their own journalism. Kevin also pioneered the "NBC Day" that pulls together many of the journalists under one roof at IRE conferences. He is also the champion of sponsorship by NBC - so all those luncheons sponsored by the network? That's Kevin's doing.

As the EVP of editorial for NBC local stations, it's Kevin's steady hand and unrelenting standards that have elevated the reporting of the local journalists under him and those who have worked for him know he's incredibly tough - but always fair. That's him sitting in show and tell, asking the pointed questions of young reporters looking for feedback. They always walk away better for hearing from Kevin.

Kevin was my first boss in news - he hired me as an intern at KGO in San Francisco and first told me about IRE - "if you want to be an investigative reporter, you must go to this thing." I went - that was 1993 - and have nearly gone every year since. Same with Kevin - no matter how big his roles at the network became, you'd see him at every IRE conference, sitting in all the panels, taking notes and chatting with everyone in the room.

Kevin is retiring this month. He will be immensely missed not only at NBC but at IRE. (We hope we'll be able to entice him to keep coming). I know there has been no better ambassador for IRE than Kevin Keeshan and I am forever grateful to him for introducing me - and countless others - to our organization. I'm thrilled to nominate him into the Ring of Honor.