Byron Kennedy

2026 Distinguished Alumni Award

Kennedy leads the fundraising and philanthropic efforts for Texas Tech University. He joined the Texas Tech University System in 2008 as general counsel for the Texas Tech Foundation and the director of gift planning, which includes gifts through estates, real property, and complex assets. He was also part of the team that led fundraising to help establish and open the Texas Tech University School of Veterinary Medicine.

In 2018, Kennedy was selected to lead the recently formed Texas Tech Office of Advancement. Under his leadership, the university’s philanthropic endeavors have flourished. Notable achievements during this period include transformational gifts leading to the naming of the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and the Huckabee College of Architecture, an increase in annual contributions from $90 million to a record high of $234 million per year, and the launch of ON&ON, the university’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, which has raised more than $1 billion to date, reaching its goal two years ahead of schedule.

Kennedy is a three-time Texas Tech alumnus, holding a bachelor’s degree in management from the Rawls College of Business, a master’s degree in personal financial planning from the College of Health and Human Sciences, and a juris doctorate from the Texas Tech University School of Law. He is also a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER®. All Kennedy’s immediate family members are dedicated Red Raiders, with 14 degrees from the university among them.

Kennedy and his wife, Lindsey, live in Idalou with their two children, Graham, 10, and Annie, 5. Lindsey is a professor of practice at the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources at Texas Tech.