CHARLOTTE — Eighteen months ago, the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets and other pro and college sports teams in the Carolinas ditched CPI Security as a sponsor in response to remarks made by the company’s CEO about the Black Lives Matter protest movement and local police tactics.
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In recent months, CPI Security has quietly returned as a sponsor with several teams that severed ties with the company last year. The executive guiding that strategy is former Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Chief Kerr Putney, who became a consultant to the company several weeks after retiring from CMPD in the summer of 2020. He later became a full-time executive as chief of community and government relations.
Putney, who is Black, told CBJ this week that CPI’s sports-marketing strategy will focus on minor-league baseball and college sports. And, he said, each agreement includes community outreach components that continue the Charlotte security company’s commitment to helping underserved children.
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Putney said he expects to add several more sponsorships soon, though CPI is likely to stay below 10 agreements overall. The company now has five sports sponsorships. Talks with former and prospective sponsors are in progress, he added.
(Watch the video below: Panthers, Hornets cut ties with CPI Security after CEOs protest remark)
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