Kevin Mather is an American former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

executive and accountant. He is a minority owner of the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

, which he served as the president of from 2014 until 2021.

Early life and career

Mather grew up in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

. He graduated from the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

in 1984, earning a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in accounting and risk/insurance. He worked as a

Certified Public Accountant Certified Public Accountant (CPA) is the title of qualified accountants in numerous countries in the English-speaking world. It is generally equivalent to the title of chartered accountant in other English-speaking countries. In the United Sta ...

at a firm for five years, before joining the

front office The front office is the part of a company that comes in contact with clients, such as the marketing, sales, and service departments. The term has more specific meaning in different industries. Types General offices The function of front office ...

of the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

, starting as their director of finance in 1989, and receiving a promotion to vice president in 1992.

Seattle Mariners

Mather joined the

organization in 1996, serving as executive vice president of finance. He was in charge of overseeing the building of

Safeco Field T-Mobile Park is a retractable roof stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners and has a seating capacity of 47,929. It is in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, near the western t ...

. In January 2014, he was selected to succeed Chuck Armstrong as team president. In July 2018, a ''Seattle Times'' article reported that Mather contributed to creating a hostile workplace environment for women. Mather had been the subject of two workplace complaints from female employees in 2009 and 2010. In both instances the employees were compensated an undisclosed sum. The two women eventually left the organization; Mather was retained and promoted. Mather spoke at a

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

Breakfast

Rotary Club Rotary International is one of the largest service organizations in the world. Its stated mission is to "provide service to others, promote integrity, and advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through hefellowship of business, profe ...

event in February 2021, in which he confessed to manipulating the service time of Mariners prospects during the 2020 season. He made comments about the poor English-language skills of some of the team's foreign players, specifically complaining about needing to hire interpreters for players such as Japanese

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Hisashi Iwakuma is a Japanese former professional baseball pitcher. He has played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes from 2000 to 2004, Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles from 2005 to 2011, and Yomiuri Giants in 2019, and all of ...

and remarking on the poor English of Julio Rodríguez, a Dominican prospect. Mather also commented on the team's profits during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. The video was released publicly on February 21, and Mather resigned as president of the Mariners the next day. His successor as team president was Catie Griggs.

Personal life

Mather and his wife, Shannon, live in

Issaquah, Washington Issaquah ( ) is a city in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 40,051 at the 2020 census. Located in a valley and bisected by Interstate 90, the city is bordered by the Sammamish Plateau to the north and the "Issaquah Alp ...

. They have three sons: John, David, and Steven.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mather, Kevin Living people Businesspeople from Madison, Wisconsin People from Issaquah, Washington Wisconsin School of Business alumni Minnesota Twins executives Seattle Mariners executives Year of birth missing (living people)