As great as it feels to still have Masters Week upon us in 2020, St. Louis has its own great news to share on the golf front. Longtime St. Louis-area business and civic leader Alonzo Byrd has been named director of business development and community engagement of the Ascension Charity Classic, the HNS Sports Group-managed, first-year PGA TOUR Champions event at Norwood Hills Country Club.
Officials of the Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson made the announcement this week to coincide with the Masters.
Byrd joins the Ascension Charity Classic management team after nearly 20 years with Enterprise Holdings, which owns and operates Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent-A-Car. Byrd’s role with Enterprise as assistant vice president of public affairs placed him in charge of the development and execution of corporate citizenship initiatives nationwide for the company headquartered in St. Louis.
In addition, Byrd served as Vice President of the Executive Committee for the Leadership Council of Southwestern Illinois. He is also a former Chair of East Side Aligned, a collective impact initiative in East St. Louis; a board member for Fair Saint Louis, and a member of the Board of Visitors for the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University in Baltimore. Furthermore, Byrd was a member of the Mayors Business Council for the U.S. Conference of Mayors; a member of the Corporate Roundtable for the National League of Cities, and a Master Coach for the Masters Series for Distinguished Leaders, a professional development initiative in Washington, D.C.
“Alonzo has been an active and invested member of our St. Louis business and philanthropic community throughout a long and distinguished professional career,” said Nick Ragone, Ascension Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. “His experience and relationships will connect the Ascension Charity Classic presented by Emerson to golf fans, businesses, community interests and many more throughout the St. Louis region and beyond.”
Prior to joining Enterprise, Byrd was a vice president at Fleishman-Hillard, where he managed a wide range of media relations, corporate relations, and diversity-related issues for Fortune 500 clients, including Anheuser-Busch Companies, UPS, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and AT&T.
