A Chicago-area native, Jenkins had to get acquainted with the equine business as he was dreaming up innovative ways to promote it—a situation that actually wasn’t new to him. Except in one key respect. KEENELAND RACECOURSE AND CHURCHILL DOWNS PHOTOS
“I’ve never been at a place where people are so willing to help you learn,” he says, referencing the many nuances of the sport. “Coming from a consulting background, where I’d gone into lots of different companies in lots of different industries and had to get up to speed quickly, I never found the willingness to help that I did here.” Van Onselder—who grew up in Battle Creek and climbed the financial management ladder in Raleigh, N.C., and Lexington after graduating summa cum laude from Albion— has enjoyed a similar introductory experience at Keeneland. “This management team is absolutely fabulous,” she says. “The accounting part, the finance, that’s the same really—whether it’s the medical field, financial services, the Thoroughbred industry. But they all have their different jargon. Anything that I needed to know, I had somebody right there.” While Van Onselder may be the lone female on Keeneland’s executive team, she doesn’t focus on that fact. She’s used to being one of relatively few women in the executive ranks in finance. What’s more striking in her current role is the combination of the strong sense of tradition coupled with an openness to newcomers that she has found in the Kentuckians with whom she works. (From top) Albion Britons Connie Edmonds Van Onselder, ’84, and Tom Jenkins, ’85, balance tradition and change in their leadership roles at two of America’s greatest racecourses. Churchill Downs’ iconic Twin Spires. The horses ready to run at Churchill Downs.
18 | Albion College Io Triumphe!
“For a lot of them, their families have been in this business for a very long time,” she explains. “They’re very welcoming, opposite of what you might think. And there’s nothing you can’t ask. It’s truly a unique industry in that sense.”