Kirkwood Buckman, is a seasoned event logistics professional with over 20 years of experience. He is a sought after thought leader and adviser to the event logistics community. Prior to Buckman Events, Kirkwood joined the global brand events team at Nike in Portland. He curated brand partnerships and activations for the company’s high profile involvement in events such as the summer Olympics, European soccer championship, World Cup, NBA All-Star, and Super Bowl. In 2004, Kirkwood joined the National Basketball Association (NBA) to lead their event logistics and transportation operations for over a decade. From development through execution, he built the global transportation infrastructure plan to support the league’s international and domestic events and games, including USA Basketball and the league’s Global Games in Europe and Asia. Prior to the NBA, he was an instrumental figure as an account director in the agency world with Vasta and Associates where they managed clients such as NBC, curating their guest programs for both summer and winter Olympics as well as GE where, in addition to managing the board’s involvement with the Olympics, also managed shareholders meetings and board retreats. He also led the charge to organize the hosting of the women’s World Cup in the United States when the outbreak of the bird flu in China led to a change of host nation. 

Kirkwood is a veteran of several Democratic National Conventions (DNCC) where he served as head of the transportation department. His political events background also includes being a part of the operations and events team at the 1997 Presidential Inauguration and several White House Presidential Advance. He began his career at the World Cup Soccer USA94 in Chicago where he served as a volunteer coordinator and later to stadium operations.

Originally from Ghana, Kirkwood now resides on the west coast with his family where he enjoys watching Liverpool and basketball in his free time.