Rajkowski Named One of Charlotte's Most Admired CEOs by Charlotte Business Journal

The Charlotte Knights would like to congratulate Dan Rajkowski, who has been named as one of Charlotte's Most Admired CEOs by the Charlotte Business Journal. Rajkowski, the Chief Operating Officer of the Charlotte Knights, received the award during the Charlotte Business Journal's Virtual Awards Ceremony on November 17, 2020.

Rajkowski's tenure with the Knights began as Vice President, General Manager of the club in 2006. After the 2012 season, he was elevated to the team's Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer to focus more on the re-location of the club to Uptown Charlotte. During his time with the team in Fort Mill, SC, Knights Stadium welcomed over two million fans through the gates.

Thanks to Dan's tireless efforts, the Knights moved to Uptown Charlotte and opened Truist Field (then BB&T Ballpark) on Friday, April 11, 2014 in front of a capacity crowd of 10,231. Under his guidance, the team led all of Minor League Baseball in attendance in 2014 with a mark of 687,715 fans -- the largest in the club's history. For his efforts, he earned the International League Executive of the Year Award and the Ballpark Digest Executive of the Year Award in 2014.

Since then, Rajkowski's Knights have welcomed over four million fans through the gates in Uptown Charlotte for Knights games, college baseball games, as well as other baseball games such as the 2014 Gildan Triple-A National Championship Game, the 2016 Triple-A Baseball All-Star Game and Home Run Derby and two Chicago White Sox Exhibition games. Truist Field has also been home to concerts, tailgating events, beer festivals and much more. The ballpark will turn into a Christmas Village beginning on November 27.

In all, Rajkowski has operated clubs at all classifications of Minor League Baseball and has been honored with numerous awards over his career. He was named the Southern League's Executive of the Year in 1997. In 2000, he was the recipient of the highly coveted Larry McPhail Promotional Award for Minor League Baseball, and was elected to the Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. One year later, while with the Toronto Blue Jays organization, he received the Bobby Mattick Award for dedication and excellence in player development.

ABOUT THE CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL'S MOST ADMIRED CEO AWARDS & EVENT
These awards recognize established local leaders who have a strong vision for their companies, have shown commitment to culture in the workplace and made significant contributions to the Charlotte community. Nominations were open to the public and came from members of the business community, within the honorees organizations and externally.

The CBJ editorial team selected honorees to recognize within each industry category.