Bios of the AWA Team
Greg Koch
Founder, American Whitetail Authority
As the visionary behind American Whitetail Authority, Greg is an innovator, educator, entrepreneur and true outdoorsman. With more than 30 years of in-depth outdoor sports experience, Greg has an unparalleled knowledge of what it takes to succeed in the sportsman’s realm — from both a businessman’s perspective and that of a participant.
As founder of Quail Restoration Technologies, Greg pioneered a successful means of establishing quail on a piece of property and shattered long-held beliefs about the viability of released quail. He has also founded non-profit conservation corporations, fully developed and successfully marketed a gum for deer hunters that eliminates odor from human breath, and created “Moonsense,” a successful technique of predicting deer movement as related to the moon’s position around the earth, which has been featured in Outdoor Life, Bowhunter and other notable magazines. Greg has trained hunting dogs for nationally recognized kennels and implemented successful habitat and wildlife strategies while establishing 17 commercial and private hunting clubs across the country. As part of the management team for some of the country’s most respected hunting clubs, Greg has served as a professional guide for countless hunters and fishermen from all walks of life. He has an undeniable understanding of what sportsmen want from an outdoors experience, as well as a deep connection and respect for the traditions, ethics and lifestyle of the hunting community.
Kevin VanDam
American Whitetail Authority
Spokesman
Professional bass fishing has risen to a major sports level in recent years with regular season and national championships televised on ESPN2. And when it comes to professional bass fishing, Kevin VanDam is arguably the best in the world. A five-time Angler of the Year, VanDam has captured three Bassmaster Classic titles and is currently the all-time money winner on the Bassmaster Tournament trail. He was even honored with the first-ever Outdoorsman of the Year ESPY trophy at ESPN’s televised awards program in 2002.
VanDam is more than a fierce fisherman, however. He’s also an avid deer hunter, who recognizes the value of bringing a professional-bass-fishing-style tournament series to the sport of deer hunting. As spokesperson, his celebrity will help spotlight the AWA Whitetail Pro Series nationally, capturing the attention of outdoor writers and hunters alike. His involvement will also help communicate how the tournament approach will work, using the successful B.A.S.S. model as a template.
Don B. Rucks
Don is a senior management professional with more than 30 years of experience in consumer, sports and event marketing, sponsorship incorporation, brand development and advertising and sales promotion. More than 16 of those years were with Fortune 500 Corporations such as CITGO Petroleum Corporation and ESPN Outdoors/B.A.S.S.
Don is responsible for developing and implementing the current strategy behind the most prestigious professional-level bass fishing organization — Bass Anglers Sportsman’s Society. By paralleling the PGA Tour and NASCAR, Don’s vision gave rise to the Bassmaster Elite Series, a change in timing to the Bassmaster Classic — the world championship of bass fishing — and turned bass fishing tournaments into spectator events. Those events created marketable personalities out of contestants and provided diverse and lucrative revenue streams for the pro anglers and their sponsors.
Brian Lynn
With a decade of senior-level editorial and writing experience at high-traffic/circulation online and print media platforms, Brian brings an unparalleled knowledge of how vertical-market audiences, particularly hunters and fishermen, consume and disseminate information. Having served as a senior editor at leading outdoors media — stalwarts like Outdoor Life, ESPNOutdoors.com and Bassmaster.com — Brian has the eye of a media professional and understands what online and print journalists, editors and writers desire in story and product ideas.
As important as his print and online communication experience and connections are, Brian’s love of the sportsman’s lifestyle is what allows him to understand and successfully appeal to our audience. He has been hunting and fishing for more than 25 years and strongly believes in and supports the ethics, rights and evolvement of the outdoorsman. In addition to freelance and consulting work within the industry, he writes the “Gun Dogs with Brian Lynn” blog on OutdoorLife.com.
