CARnd10 GAAT:CARnd06 gaatoday 11/4/10 11:41 AM Page 50
Honors
Internet, Sports Leaders
Receive Distinguished
Young Alumni Awards
REGINA OLIVER ’75
Tshow distributor and the agency that
he leaders of a pioneering online TV
What he says
about his job:
polices doping by Olympic athl etes have
been honored by the GAA with
Distinguished Young Alumni Awards.
Jason Alan Kilar ’93, CEO of Hulu.com,
and Travis Thompson Tygart ’93, CEO of
the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, received the
awards at a banquet on Oct. 1 for bringing
credit to the University through their
achievements.
“The Internet on its
own does not
change the industry,
it’s the customer
response to companies and the service
offering that they
deliver. That’s what
changes industries.”
“The remarkable accomplishments of
many of Carolina’s younger alumni such as
Jason and Travis are truly inspiring,” said
GAA President Douglas Dibbert ’70.
What others say
about him: “He’s
one of these people
I can really say
Jason Kilar ’93, left, is CEO of Hulu.com, the online distributor of TV shows and movies. Travis
Tygart ’93 is CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which polices use of banned substances by
Olympic athletes.
Since 1989, the GAA’s Distinguished
Young Alumni Awards have recognized
alumni age 40 or younger.
‘wow’ about. …
He’s always doing something interesting.
Meet this year’s recipients.
Jason Alan Kilar ’93
He’s comfortable with taking risks and with
people disagreeing with him.” — John
Sweeney ’86 (MEd), Distinguished Professor in
sports communication at the UNC School of
Career: After graduating Phi Beta
Kappa with a double major in journalism
and mass communication and business
administration, Kilar began his career with
The Walt Disney Co., where he worked for
Disney Design & Development. After earning his MBA from Harvard Business School
in 1997, he spent nearly a decade at
Amazon.com in several leadership roles,
including vice president and general manager of Amazon’s North American media
businesses, overseeing its books, music,
video and DVD categories. The Seattle resident later served as senior vice president for
Amazon’s worldwide application software.
Journalism and Mass Communication.
Travis Thompson Tygart ’93
Career: Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, headquartered in Colorado
Springs, Colo., oversees a nonprofit organization that investigates Olympic athletes
suspected of using performance-enhancing
drugs; reaches out to young athletes and
elite amateurs to educate them on making
healthy, ethical choices; and funds research
related to deterring drug use in sports. After
receiving a degree in philosophy at UNC,
Tygart earned a law degree from Southern
Methodist University in 1999 and became
outside counsel to the agency when it was
formed in 2000, shortly after the Sydney
Olympics. He became USADA’s director of
legal affairs in 2002 and CEO in 2007.
BALCO laboratory in San Francisco, the
Jacksonville, Fla., native has testified before
Congress several times about broader issues
related to illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs and the pressures on those
who want to compete fairly without jeopardizing their health or compromising their
integrity. His testimony before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee in 2008
helped achieve Senate ratification of the
UNESCO anti-doping convention, an
international treaty against doping in sports.
Tygart returns to UNC at least once a year
to speak to journalism, law and philosophy
students on ethics issues.
What he says about his job: “We’re
fighting culture and society. Our job is to
ensure that the best athletes on the field are
the ones playing by the rules and without
drugs.”
Kilar helped lead the creation of Hulu in
2007. The Los Angeles-based website — a
joint venture of News Corp., NBC
Universal, the Walt Disney Co. and
Providence Equity Partners — offers thousands of full TV shows and movies for free.
As Hulu’s chief, Kilar has been included by
Fortune and Rolling Stone magazines on
their “40 Under 40” lists of top young business and media leaders, and in its October
issue, Vanity Fair placed him among the top
100 of what it called “The New
Establishment.”
What others say about him: “You
could say Travis practices what he preaches,
but he doesn’t preach, he just practices.” —
Besides high-profile investigations of athletes and organizations, including the
Craig Camp ’93, Tygart’s friend since kindergarten and a director at Merrill Lynch.
— Keith King ’82 and Nancy E. Oates
ONLINE: For full text of Distinguished Young Alumni Award citations for Jason Kilar ’93 and Travis
Tygart ’93, and to see a list of previous award recipients, visit alumni.unc.edu/awards.
A profile of Kilar from the July/August 2010 Carolina Alumni Review is available to GAA members at
bit.ly/Kilar-car-profile. See video of some of his appearances at Carolina at
bit.ly/Kilar-appearances.
