Nickelodeon vet Dawkins to exit

The executive VP of Nickelodeon is leaving the Viacom-owned network after almost two decades to join a golf charity chaired by former US president George W Bush.

Keith Dawkins

Keith Dawkins will join The First Tee on October 16 as incoming CEO before officially taking the reins following the retirement of Joe Louis Barrow Jr on January 1, 2018.

The First Tee is a non-profit youth development organisation that aims to help young people through the game of golf.

During his time at Nickelodeon, Dawkins has overseen the tween/teen-targeted and animation-based networks TeenNick and Nicktoons, as well as Nick Jr and NickMusic.

Laura Lundgren, senior VP of marketing for NickSplat and Nick Sports, will be taking over Dawkins’ responsibilities on an interim basis, said Cyma Zarghami, president of Viacom’s Nickelodeon Group, in an internal memo.

Dawkins’ recent initiatives include NickSplat, which targets adults who grew up watching Nickelodeon in the 1990s, while he has also fostered a relationship between Nickelodeon and golf competition the PGA Tour.

Dawkins joined Viacom in 2000 as a supervising producer for VH1 News. Prior to that, Dawkins was a Fox News Channel producer, where he was part of the network’s original launch team.