|
|
| :
New Board for USA Rugby |
|
|
 |
New Board for USA Rugby
Event Date:
Monday, 07/17/06
|
|
|
|
Governance Restructure Complete With New Board
7-15-2006 - Governance Restructure Complete With New Board
CHICAGO—An aggressive vote to seize change and grasp the opportunities facing USA Rugby eight months ago and supported in March with support to adopt a new strategic plan came to fruition here Saturday. It included a radically different governance model moving from a constituent-based Board to a strategic one, which was seated during the second day of the Union’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).
The new Board charged with developing and implementing the annual operational plans and establishing appropriate networks of volunteers and expert advisory groups to assist them in implementing the strategic and operational plans includes independent directors Victor Hilarov; founder/former President USA Rugby; Founder & President Hilarov & Associates Management Consultants; international investment banker, IFG Director and former International Rugby Board CEO Tom Wacker; Senior Vice President of the United States Military Academy Association of Graduates and former Army men’s and women’s head coach Lt. Colonel (retired) Mike Mahan; Corporate Capital Group CEO and professional rugby league investor Bill Middleton; Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide CEO and former NZ Rugby Board member Kevin Roberts; and Event and Sponsorship Marketing Vice President Paul Tsuchiya. Bob Latham was elected as the Congress representative on the Board and Jen Joyce and David Hodges were elected as qualified athlete representatives seats from the International Athlete pool.
Mr. Hilarov was the first to address the Congress Saturday. Thirty years ago he co-founded USA Rugby which held its first-ever Board meeting here in Chicago.
“We came in with 15 people, great dreams and no money,” said Mr. Hilarov. “Six months later the first US team to play a team from the southern hemisphere, Australia, lost 24-12. After that, we played France in Washington DC and then England at Twickenham.
“Even then the international media was calling America the sleeping giant of rugby. The sleeping giant now needs to be awakened. This is a great nation, with great athletes, amazing wealth and we’re ready to tap that.”
The naming of a Chair, that will assume that role for both the Board and Congress, will be announced following the Board’s first full meeting scheduled for September in New York.
The representative Congress seated Friday, made up of Territorial Union representatives, include Anne Barry, Tom Schmitt and Sigrid Valk-Feeney (Midwest); Chuck Depew, Frank Merrill, Ellen Owens and David Pelton (Pacific Coast); David Chapman, Pat Costello and Elaine Recchiuti (MARFU); Paul Ganey, Pat Guthrie and Steve Vent (Southern Cal); Bruce Church, Clay Gardner and Ed Hughes (Northeast); Martin Gardner, Danita Knox and Jeff Smolka (South); Paul Mabry, and Bill Sexton (West) and qualified athletes Mark Griffin, Liz Kirk, Alex Magelby and Alex Williams.
USA RUGBY BOARD OF DIRECTORS
VICTOR HILAROV
Between 1961-82 Mr. Hilarov founded and served as president of the Wisconsin RFU, Milwaukee RFC, Midwest RFU and USA Rugby, signing the Union's first $100,000 sponsorship, creating the ITT as a pathway to the Eagles and presided over the first-ever Eagles matches against Australia, France, Canada and England and later represented the Union at a USA Bi-Centennial celebration hosted by former President Gerald Ford and Queen Elizabeth. He also founded the U.S. Rugby Syndicate, to market and sponsor rugby tournaments throughout the United States. He simultaneously founded and served as president of three Midwest-based travel agencies, including Odyssey International Travel (serving the fine arts and higher education clients); Suntrack (charters and travel packages to existing travel professionals) and the Odyssey Commercial Travel System, catering to Midwest corporations. In 1980 Mr. Hilarov founded the Sports Marketing Group whose clients included the United States Ski Association and U.S. Cycling and most recently founded Hilarov and Associates, Management Consulting agency, specializing in international mega-events, such as the 1985 and 1986 World's Fairs in Japan and Vancouver, creating and directing the first professional basketball league in South Africa, speaking at World Trade Association conferences and planning trade missions for TEC, an international organization of CEOs, to Cuba, South Africa, China, Australia and New Zealand.
LT. COLONEL (Ret.) MIKE MAHAN
Lieutenant Colonel (Retired) Mike Mahan earned five Meritorious Service Awards, the Airborne Badge, Ranger Tab and Expert Infantryman’s Badge in 21 years of infantry service in the United States Army before retiring in 1991 and beginning his second career as a development executive for the Association of Graduates (AOG) of the United States Military Academy. In 1995, Mr. Mahan became AOG Vice President. He designed and executed the first comprehensive fund-raising campaign of any federal academy. At the close of the campaign, the Academy had raised $218M against its $150M goal. Giving had increased from $10M per year when Mike assumed leadership of the effort, to over $30M per year at the close of the campaign. The fund-raising campaign won two awards for excellence from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Mr. Mahan now continues to serve as the Senior Vice President of the AOG and has collected over $350M of private funds to help support the mission of the Military Academy. Throughout his career at West Point, Mr. Mahan has been active as a rugby coach, serving 14 years as the men’s head coach, taking Army to the USA Rugby Men’s Division I College Championships nine times. In 2003, Mr. Mahan was named the first head coach of the women’s rugby team at West Point. He also served as head coach of the US Army Select Rugby Team and the Combined Services U-25 Select Team.
BILL MIDDLETON
An investment advisor, since 1988 Mr. Middleton has been the founder and President/CEO of the Corporate Capital Group in New York, providing investment banking and financial advisory services to Australian, New Zealand and United States companies with regard to sales of companies, capital development, merger and acquisition consulting. From 1980-84 he worked for Big Eight accounting firm Arthur Young in both Sydney and Stamford, Conn., as CEO of a subsidiary of the agency and later as President of AY Business Systems, a joint venture of AY U.S., Canada and Australia. Mr. Middleton combined his two decades of playing rugby in his native Australia and New Zealand with his almost two decades of living and working in the United States to invest and serve as a board member of a domestic company attempting to introduce professional rugby to the U.S., obtaining official sanctioning from USA Rugby, appointing an executive director for the project, and completing an information memorandum for release to potential team owners and investors which would have come to completion in October of 2001 when the events of Sept. 11 precluded the resurrection of the project.
KEVIN ROBERTS
Mr. Roberts is the New York-based Worldwide CEO of Ideas Company Saatchi & Saatchi, one of the
world's leading creative organizations. Clients include some of the world's best-performing companies including Procter & Gamble, Toyota, General Mills, Visa International and Novartis. Mr. Roberts started his business career with the influential London fashion house of Mary Quant. At 32, he became CEO of Pepsi-Cola Middle East and later became Pepsi's CEO in Canada. In 1989, Mr. Roberts moved to Auckland to become Chief Operating Officer with Lion Nathan, a position he held for seven years. He moved to New York City to head up Saatchi & Saatchi globally and in 2000 merged the company with Publicis Groupe S.A., the world's fourth largest communications group. This will be Mr. Roberts’ second tour on a Rugby Union Board as he was elected to the New Zealand Rugby Football Union Board in 1997 and served until 2000. He was Chair of the Marketing and Commercial Committee. He played an integral role in ensuring NZRFU emerged from the growing pains of becoming a professional sport as the most successful Union in the world and a first class international business and has emerged as a global sporting brand. Mr. Roberts played a key role in negotiating the Adidas sponsorship of NZ Rugby, then the largest sponsorship in rugby history, which was central in retaining star players in New Zealand as well as ownership and control over the All Blacks, financial stability for the NZRFU. A New Zealand citizen, in November 2004 he was appointed ambassador for the New Zealand United States Council in the U.S., to complement government-to-government relationships. Mr. Roberts is the CEO in residence at Cambridge University’s Judge Business School.
PAUL TSUCHIYA
A seasoned operating and marketing executive in the sports and entertainment industries, Mr. Tsuchiya has worked on all sides of the business-as a brand marketer for Visa activating an Olympic sponsorship, running a major entertainment property as COO of the GRAMMY Awards, and helping launch the Chinese National Basketball League with IMG, a leading sports marketing and management agency. Mr. Tsuchiya honed his event management skills on the Organizing Committee of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, and later ran tournament operations for FIFA and the US Soccer Federation at the championship venue of the 2003 FIFA Women's World Cup. As Vice President of Partnership Marketing for a major financial institution, Mr. Tsuchiya currently directs the integrated brand marketing and activation sponsorship portfolio which includes the Olympic Games, NFL, NASCAR, the Walt Disney Company, the Kentucky Derby, the Tony Awards, House of Blues, San Francisco Giants, and the New England Patriots. Mr. Tsuchiya's international business experience includes a 5-year stint in Hong Kong, where he picked up his appreciation for international rugby at the Hong Kong Sevens. Mr. Tsuchiya ran IMG's basketball business throughout Asia, securing sponsorship and television deals for the professional leagues in China, the Philippines and Indonesia. He worked with sponsors Nike, British American Tobacco, Ford, Budweiser, and Energizer, along with broadcasters China Central Television and ESPN Star Sports, to help launch the Chinese National Basketball League, which eventually produced the NBA's #1 draft pick, Yao Ming. Mr. Tsuchiya later joined IMG's Internet division, TWI Interactive, consulting with sports properties like Wimbledon and the British Open.
THOMAS J. WACKER
Mr. Wacker worked for Citibank from 1969-83 as an International Corporate and Investment banker in the Philippines, Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong, and Brazil. In 1983 he joined Bank of Montreal in London and then Toronto, eventually heading up all of their Corporate Banking outside of Canada. In 1987 he returned to London as Chairman of Royal Trust International responsible for that company’s international operations in 10 countries. Mr. Wacker has been a Director of Dublin-based IFG Group plc since November 1991, as Chairman and CEO of the group’s operations in the Isle of Man until 1997 and now as non-executive director. He was the International Rugby Board’s first Chief Executive in 1996 and was instrumental in moving the organization to Dublin, the 1997 RWC 7s, planning for the 1999 RWC, and many other important initiatives resulting from rugby becoming an “open game”. Started up Belmont, a successful London based investment partnership that has founded seven Limited Partnerships to invest in private equity, participated as principal in two real estate developments and invested in numerous hedge funds. In total the partnership now has over $250 million under management, mostly for USA high net worth clients. Mr. Wacker is Chairman of the Penguin’s International RFC, the longest standing rugby touring club in the world. Over the last 47 years the Club has toured and assisted with coaching in 37 different countries and is sponsored by HSBC.
BOB LATHAM
Mr. Latham is the immediate past Chairman of USA Rugby and served on the previous Board of Directors for 12 years. From 2000-04 Mr. Latham was a member of the Board of Directors of the United States Olympic Committee. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Virginia Law School and practices law with the firm of Jackson Walker L.L.P., a full service law firm with more than 300 attorneys in six offices. Bob practices out of both the Dallas and Houston offices, is the Chairman of the firm’s media law and intellectual property litigation practices firm wide and chairs the litigation section in Dallas. His clients have included ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg News, ESPN, The New York Times Company, Newsweek, and many other publications, as well as high tech and Fortune 500 companies. He began his rugby career at Stanford, continued playing during law school and played for 13 years for the Dallas Harlequins as well as for the Texas Select Side. He also served a term as President of the Dallas All-Sports Association, an organization that brings together the major professional sports franchises in North Texas to raise money for college scholarships. In Mr. Latham’s year as President, the organization raised sufficient funds to award 21 college scholarships. He writes a monthly column for SportsTravel Magazine.
JEN JOYCE
Following two years on the developmental side, Ms. Joyce has been a USA Rugby Women’s National Team member since 2003, and Board of Directors as an International Athlete representative from 2005-06. She has four caps against New Zealand, Canada, Scotland and Ireland. Ms. Joyce has been captain since 2001 for the Austin Valkyries team that she has played for since 1997, and has been a member of the Texas and West Select since 2000. Her administrative roles also include serving on the Board of the Austin RFC (2001-03) and West Competitions Committee. She has been instrumental in developing women’s rugby in Texas and the West. As president of her club the last nine years, she developed a 501(c)(3), business plan and savings structure now mirrored by numerous women’s clubs throughout the United States. As a captain she was integral in advancement from social to top-12 side over the last three years (and A&B side from 11 players when joined). The recruiting, selection and coaching structure used by Ms. Joyce to secure two international coaches is used by other clubs in the U.S. She is currently a program manager for the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs in Austin where she oversees $800 million in state and federal tax credit allocations, grants and loans and is responsible for drafting and implementing public policy through the Governor’s office.
DAVID HODGES
Mr. Hodges was capped 54 times as a national team member from 1996-2004 and captained an American record 28 Eagles tests. During his nine years on the men’s national team, he was a lock and backrow forward, competing in the 1999 and 2003 Rugby World Cups. Mr. Hodges made his professional debut in the back row in 1997 when he played for Llanelli (Wales) RFC for two years before playing for Bridgend RFC during the 1999-2000 season. He remained in Wales from 2000-05 to play back row for the Llaneilli Scarlets where he earned player of the year honors from both the players and coaches following the 2001-02 season. He also served as the Scarlets’ strength coach from 2001-04 and his coaching resume was strengthened when he was the assistant coach for the USA Rugby Men’s National Team and was the team manager and coach of the 2005 USA Rugby Collegiate All-Americans two-game tour of New Zealand. As a member of the national office he served as a game development officer for the high school administration model, before transitioning into the role of High Performance Manager.
|
|
|
|
|
top |
|
|
|
|
|
