Management

Ricky Dennis - Founder & League President

Ricky Dennis founded Arena Racing USA in Norfolk, Va., in November 2002, but is no newcomer to the world of motorsports. His father, Bill Dennis, won the 1970 Rookie of the Year title in what is now known as the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series. Bill also won the season-opening Late Model Sportsman Series – now NASCAR Busch Series – race at Daytona (Fla.) three straight years, from 1972 to 1974. While Bill was racing, Ricky was in school, but he soon followed in his father’s footsteps, going racing himself in 1982.

After a few years of driving, Dennis partnered with Rick Townsend to form Townsend Racing Products in 1984. Together, they made Townsend race cars the “must have” chassis from the pinnacle of NASCAR to the local short track. While drivers with the names of Allison, Bodine, Elliott and Schrader raced and won with Townsend chassis, so too did local late model stock car drivers up and down the East Coast.

But after watching a minor league hockey game in 1992, Dennis came up with the idea of arena racing. Now, his vision of half-scale stock cars racing on an indoor track within the confines of a hockey rink is a reality.

Bob Keane - President & CEO

Bob Keane has been working closely with Arena Racing on a consulting basis for over six months, and has assumed the full-time position of President & CEO as of March. Bob is a proven leader with a demonstrated history of successfully managing companies from early-stage through high-growth periods.

Following an 18-year career with AT&T where he rose to an executive level, Bob joined Comcast in 1999 and formed Comcast Business Communications the following year. As President and CEO of this subsidiary, Bob had total financial and operating responsibility for the development of a company that provided fiber based services to small and medium business. Bob’s responsibilities included the development and execution of a strategic business plan, recruiting the senior leadership team, engineering, operations, sales, product management, employee compensation strategy, finance and human resources. As a result of these efforts, Comcast built and launched 6 markets with voice, data and internet services, achieved significant revenues by the second year and employed 600 people.

In 2002, Bob joined Cavalier Telephone as their President & COO, overseeing the day-to-day operations of a regional CLEC operating in 5 states and an inter-city long haul optical network covering 15 states. Bob developed the market segmentation strategy and technology plan that grew Cavalier’s revenue from the mid-$100M range to well over $300M with 22% growth year over year. Under Bob’s leadership Cavalier grew to over 1,200 people, had best in class financial operating results including significant positive EBITDA, positive free cash flow and positive net income for over three years culminating in a significant recapitalization of the company in 2006.

Bob will have direct responsibility for building the necessary management infrastructure within the Company while leading and supporting the development and implementation of the Company’s strategic growth plan.