Pittsburgh Penguins hire new general counsel

NHL team the Pittsburgh Penguins have recruited Kevin Acklin as senior vice president and general counsel.

Acklin will take up his new position on November 1. He most recently worked as chief legal officer for Peoples Natural Gas Company. Before that he was chief of staff and chief development officer for Pittsburgh mayor William Peduto from 2013 to 2017.

In addition to overseeing the Penguins’ legal affairs, Acklin will be responsible for development of the former Civic Arena site. He will succeed Travis Williams, who is also the Penguins’ COO. Williams has announced he will step down at the end of the month to take a senior management position with another NHL team. He has been with the Penguins since 2008.

‘Travis has been an integral part of all the success we’ve had here over the past 10 years, including the development of PPG Paints Arena and the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex,’ says David Morehouse, the team’s president and CEO, in a statement. ‘Travis and his family will always be part of the Penguins family. He will be missed.’

Of Acklin, Morehouse adds: ‘We’ve worked closely with Kevin over the past five years during his time with the city and Peoples Natural Gas and have always been very impressed with his work ethic, his intelligence and – maybe most importantly – the relationships he’s developed with people throughout the city and the region.’

‘This is good news for the Lower Hill and good news for affordable, equitable and inclusive development in Pittsburgh,’ Peduto says in a statement. ‘We have a strong partnership with the Penguins already, and Kevin taking on this new role will only make the relationship between the team and the community stronger, and provide a boost to the 28-acre development.’