DON BEAVER
OWNER/PRESIDENT

The leader of the Charlotte Knights brings to the team a successful
business background and a lifelong love of the sport.

Don Beaver, whose Knights Baseball, LLC is the partnership group that owns the Knights, assumed the role of president after the purchase of the club in December 1997. His years before coming to the Knights were spent building a solid reputation in the business world inside and outside of
baseball.

After receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Business (1962) and a Master's of Business (1964) from Appalachian State University, Beaver embarked on a career as a hospital administrator. At the age of 26, he was named administrator of Richard Baker Hospital in Hickory, N.C., where he served from 1966-1972. Realizing the need for elderly health care, he founded the Brian Center Corp. and served as founder and CEO from 1973-95, when he merged the company with Living Centers of America.

While he achieved success as a nursing home pioneer, Beaver never
forgot about his love of baseball. He was thrust into the spotlight at an early age as a pitcher in the 1952 Little League World Series. Forty years later, in 1992, he combined his affection for baseball with his business skills when he purchased the Single-A Gastonia Rangers and relocated the team to Hickory.

Beaver renamed the club the Hickory Crawdads and created one of the most successful minor league franchises in baseball. Over the past nine seasons, the Crawdads (Pittsburgh Pirates) have drawn nearly 1.8 million fans and set a South Atlantic League attendance record of 283,727 in 1993. The club has
consistently ranked as one of the top teams in minor league souvenir
merchandising and hosted the 2001 SAL All-Star Game.

Beaver's other professional baseball interests include controlling interest in the first ever Triple-A World Champion New Orleans Zephyrs (Houston Astros) and a partnership interest in the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he also serves on their board of directors.

Under Beaver's ownership, the Tennessee Smokies constructed a new stadium in 2000 in Sevierville, Tenn., which hosted the Southern League All-Star Game in 2001 and 2002. The Zephyrs moved into a new, $23 million facility in 1997, and the Winston Salem Warthogs, a team he owned until it was sold in 2003, upgraded Ernie Shore Field in 2001 with new lighting, press and clubhouse facilities.