Career Perspectives from Merhawi Keflezghi and Arkan Haile
The EABA hosted a fascinating and insightful panel session with Arkan Haile and Merhawi Keflezghi. Our panelists shared insights on how they designed their career paths after graduating from law school and how they navigated through obstacles along their journeys to success.
To connect with Merhawi or Arkan, please visit our LinkedIn group.
Learn more about our distinguished panelists:
Arkan Haile
Arkan Haile is Senior Executive Advisor to the Mayor for Development and Special Projects for the City and County of Denver, an appointed position he began in April 2022.
Previously, he was a finance and corporate lawyer for over 20 years, as (i) an associate or of counsel at two national law firms (Kutak Rock LLP and Patton Boggs LLP), (ii) a partner at a law firm he co-founded and primarily managed (Gray Haile LLP n/k/a Burgher Gray LLP), and (iii) a legal executive at public companies (TransMontaigne Partners LP and NGL Energy Partners LP). He counseled and represented public and private companies and governmental entities on a range of sophisticated legal, financial, and strategic matters, including capital markets transactions (as bond or underwriter counsel); mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures; and shareholder, partnership, and LLC agreements. Prior to law school, he worked as a financial analyst for two years.
Mr. Haile holds BA in Economics and Political Science and MBA from the University of Denver, and JD from the University of Colorado. He serves on boards of CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust Inc. (NYSE: CORR) and University of Denver’s Daniels College of Business. He lives in Denver, CO with his wife and two kids.
Merhawi "Hawi" Keflezighi
Merhawi "Hawi" Keflezighi was born in Eritrea. His family moved to Italy to escape war and eventually found their way to San Diego, California in 1987. Though his older siblings ran track and played soccer, Hawi fell in love with the game of basketball at a young age. After not making the high school basketball team, Hawi agreed to become the student manager for his high school basketball team and also ran cross country for a season. These experiences as an athlete and as part of the athlete support staff sparked Hawi's passion for respecting, supporting and advocating for athletes.
Hawi majored in Communication Studies and minored in African American Studies at UCLA, while also serving as a student manager for the UCLA Men's Basketball team under Coach Steve Lavin. During Hawi's time as a student manager (1998- 2002), UCLA made three consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances in the NCAA tournament. These teams included Earl Watson, Matt Barnes, Jerome Moiso, Dan Gadzuric, Rico Hines, Ryan Hollins, and Jason Kapono, all of whom played and/or coached in the NBA.
With a goal of becoming an agent for NBA players, Hawi attended and graduated from the UCLA School of Law, with a focus on international sports and entertainment law. During Hawi's second year in law school, his brother Meb Keflezighi won the Olympic Silver Medal in the marathon. In 2005, after consulting with Meb about his management needs, Hawi pivoted and started HAWI Management with his brother Meb as his first client.
Meb's accomplishments as one of the most decorated marathoners in US history opened a lot of opportunities for both Meb and Hawi. Upon Meb's historic victory at the 2014 Boston Marathon, Hawi decided to double down on his agency and started to build an infrastructure to support more athletes. Today, HAWI Management consists of 4 full-time agents, 4 consultants and 50 clients. HAWI Management clients include Olympic medalists, World Champions and World medalists, USA record holders, and numerous National Champions.
In addition to all of the traditional and emerging footwear companies in the running industry, HAWI Management has created athlete partnership deals with brands such as United Airlines, T-Mobile, Volvo, Coca-Cola, John Hancock, AirBnB, PowerBar, Gatorade, Sony, HUMANA, Toyota and many more. Most importantly, Hawi enjoys representing good people who are world class athletes and connecting them with brand partners who value their athletic performances and character.
Hawi lives just outside of Indianapolis, IN with his wife Mikal and their kids Senai and Misgana and is on the board of Camber Outdoors, AthleteBiz and the MEB Foundation.