Get to know about the ICLA membership through the monthly 20 Questions segment. This month the spotlight turns to Kevin O'Connor, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee licensing director.

Name: Kevin O'Connor                                                                                                                             
Position/Institution: Licensing Director/External Relations Coordinator, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Number of years in your position: 3 years as Licensing Director, 4 as External Relations Coordinator, 18+ as employee at UWM
Alma Mater: UW-Platteville
Hometown: Born and raised in suburban Chicago, now live in Brown Deer, WI, just north of Milwaukee

1. Why did you become involved in ICLA? I am just now getting myself involved and am very excited about it. It is the next step for me becoming more involved in licensing as well as helping our campus licensing program take another step forward. We have been fortunate enough to grow our licensing revenues over 200 percent (200%) in the last two years, but now we need new, creative ways to maintain that and grow further.

2. How has your involvement with ICLA influenced your career? I believe it will have a great influence in building connections with other licensing directors and in learning about great ideas and other solutions on campuses similar to ours. I was a longtime member of CoSIDA while I worked in athletics communications and believe strongly in peer groups as a professional development tool and advocate.

3. If you could choose one (1) amenity to add to the workplace, what would it be? Some days it'd be great to have an unlimited smoothie bar. Other days only an open bar would do.

4. What is the biggest challenge to working in a university environment? I can only speak for a university the size of UWM (25,000 students/5,000+ employees), but it is difficult to get everyone (or even half of everyone) rowing in the same direction on anything. The sooner you understand that, and appreciate that there is a reason everyone has their own interests and agendas, the better you'll navigate this very large and sometimes overwhelming system. Ask yourself why the person across campus should care about licensing? Then try to explain it on their terms and why it matters for them or their department. Does this work? Sometimes yes and sometimes no, but in our case the awareness of licensing, branding and higher quality merchandise is at least growing. And this outreach is always opening new doors and creating new relationships on campus.

5. What is the most important skill you have developed in your career? Building consensus and buy in. There are many things I would like to think I can accomplish on my own, but I have learned in time how much easier things are if you have the support of a group of people all working toward the same goals. Getting that support aligned in the very early stages of a project is the best strategy.

6. What hobby would you get into if time and money weren't an issue? I would work toward a goal of visiting every country on Earth.

7. When people come to you for help, what do they usually want help with? Since I've worked at UWM for over 18 years, I feel like the requests I get for help are a grab bag. Sure, I can tell you about the health insurance, or sure I can explain how to get that person in the College of Letters and Sciences to finally respond to your email. But the top of the list would probably be editing or cleaning up words. I don't do it professionally as much as I did in my old job but crafting messages – personal or professional - is still something I help a lot of people with.

8. Why/when did you decide to pursue a career in collegiate licensing? It's probably fair to say it pursued me. I worked in athletics for 14 years in communications and marketing and didn't touch licensing specifically. Then after moving into a new role in University Relations and Communications, some restructuring led to licensing being without a home. Well, it found me in URC and I've been running with it ever since.

9. Who has been the most influential person in your career? This is a question where a ton of names rush into my mind. I'll narrow it to 2 with the caveat that there are literally hundreds of people that have made a huge difference in my career. I was fortunate enough to go to school at UW-Platteville when Bo Ryan was the basketball coach and I worked closely with the program as a student reporter, broadcaster and athletics department worker. And, of course, I also took his basketball class to learn everything there was to know about the swing offense. But the things I learned about leading a team and about taking care of the little things and doing them well every day are things that have stayed with me my entire career. The other person on the top line is Bud Haidet, the former athletics director at UWM who hired me originally as Sports Information Director in 2000. Bud knew being a great leader meant surrounding yourself with great people, and knowing how to step back and let the spotlight shine on the student-athletes and coaches as they are winning championships. Bud always had your back and stood up for his coaches, staff and student-athletes at all times. He listened to the advice of those that were bigger experts in a certain area than he was, and he wasn't afraid to take chances on talented people who maybe others doubted could do it at the Division I level. Of course one of those people Bud took a chance on was Bo Ryan, which led Bud to take a chance on me, and there's little doubt the leadership trait of loyalty I learned from both of them is one reason why I'm still working at UWM more than 18 years later.

10. If you didn't have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time? Write a book.

11. Who's your role model? Why? I hate to sound like an old curmudgeon, but I'm not sure I really believe in role models. No one is perfect, and your best bet is to try to take some of the best characteristics of a lot of the people around you. And just the same, learn how to handle adversity and those imperfections from the people around you, too.

12. What's your favorite quote? I'm still waiting for perfection. In the mean time, I'll settle for persistence.

13. What is your biggest pet peeve? Bad answers to simple questions.

14. If you could turn any activity into an Olympic sport, what would you have a good chance at winning medal a for? De-cluttering.

15. What is the best piece of advice you have ever received? What advice would you give to someone looking to enter the field of collegiate licensing? Let the experts be experts. Do what you are good at and build a team around you to fill in the gaps.

16. In your opinion, where is collegiate licensing headed in the future? The biggest thing I see is the continued evolution of e-commerce. It has opened so many more doors to product selection and availability, but has loosened quality and branding controls. As it has gotten cheaper (in many cases) to make things at lower quantities, almost anyone can jump in the game and "try" to do it. Licensing is far from the only place this will continue to play out – how do you really even tell anymore what the different is between the multitude of $399 and $599 TVs (or $199!) in the market, or the proliferation of options when you search for wireless headphones on Amazon.

17. What is your favorite family tradition? I have a 7 and 5 year old so I feel like our family traditions are still building. My kids are getting a louder vote in what they do and don't like when it comes to traditions, so I'd guess some things will settle in over time.

18. What are you really good at, but kind of embarrassed that you are good at it? Math, though I don't know that I'm embarrassed about it as much as it doesn't really fit. I was a broadcast communications major and have worked my entire life in communications and marketing, surrounded by people who say "I hate math" daily. I went to a school where I was surrounded by engineers and chuckled as they studied all night while I screwed around at the campus radio station. Yet in the end I probably should've been a math teacher.

19. What percentage of your work-week is spent in your office? 60-70 percent I would say. Other parts of my job lead me off-campus some, and I try hard to have meetings in various locales on campus to not spend too much time just sitting at my desk. It's great to get out and see people on and off campus. I like being on the move, and I value that being a part of my job.

20. What are you most looking forward to at the next ICLA Convention or Winter Symposium? Interacting with others from college campuses across the country is always the biggest takeaway from any event. There are so many great ideas out there and so many people facing similar challenges, you can always walk away with some ways to do things you had not thought of before.

About ICLA: ICLA provides educational and networking opportunities, enhancement of acceptable operating standards and ethics, and establishment of the overall prestige and understanding of the profession of collegiate licensing. For more information on ICLA, please visit www.iclanet.com. ICLA is administered by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA), which is in its 54^thyear. For more information on NACDA and the 17 professional associations that fall under its umbrella, please visit www.nacda.com.