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USA Swimming released a few updates in communication with their members on the state of their search for a new CEO today. Firstly, the USA Swimming Board of Directors approved the creation of a 9-member CEO Search Task Force, mirroring the action they took in 2017, the last time they were searching for a new CEO.
The task force will be helping to guide the search for the new CEO, identifying, selecting, and filtering through the candidates to recommend for the position. Per USA Swimming’s release, “the Task Force solicits a broad range of input from a diverse set of members, and while the Board approved the structure, each stakeholder group directly named the members.”
Here is the makeup of the Task Force:
- Maya Dirado Andrews (Board appointee, 10-Year Athlete Representative)
- Natalie Coughlin (Board Vice Chair and Board appointee, 10-Year Athlete Representative)
- Katy Arris-Wilson (Board appointee)
- Sabir Muhammad (Board appointee)
- Caitlin Leverenz Smith (10-Year Athlete Representative, appointed by Athletes’ Advisory Council)
- Michael Lawrence (appointed by the Coach Advisory Council)
- Jamie Platt (appointed by the Zone Directors’ Council)
- Anne Berry (appointed by the USA Swimming Foundation)
- Ginny Nussbaum (appointed by the National Team Steering Committee)
As the above list shows, there were several Board appointees, and the Athletes’ Advisory Council, Coach Advisory Council. Zone Directors’ Council, USA Swimming Foundation, and National Team Steering Committee each appointed a member as well. There are some well-known former swimmers on the list, including Maya Dirado Andrews, Natalie Coughlin, and Caitlin Leverenz Smith. Ginny Nussbaum was also the head coach of the 2023 World Junior Championships girls team. There is one member of this Task Force who served on the previous iteration in 2017, Michael Lawrence. Lawrence is the head coach of Lake Forest Swim Club in Illinois and has previously served on the USA Swimming Board of Directors, as well as the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Board of Directors.
As far as this Task Force goes, it differs quite a bit from the 2017 version. Firstly, in 2017, there were only 7 members of the Task Force. The makeup was very different also. In 2017, the Task Force featured a former USA Swimming president, 2 former athletes, a swim club founder, a current coach, and 2 members with legal experience. It appears they have taken a slightly different approach this time around, seemingly focusing in on people who have on-the-ground experience working closely within the USA Swimming apparatus.
For example, there were 2 former National Team athletes on the 2017 Task Force, while this time around, there are 5. We know Dirado Andrews, Coughlin, and Leverenz Smith very well, given their more recent swimming careers, but Katy Arris-Wilson and Sabir Muhammad were very high profile swimmers in their day too. Arris Wilson was a National Team member from 1987-1992, wherein she competed at 2 Pan Pacific Championships, a World Championships, and the Goodwill Games. She also served as the president of TIDE Swimming in Virginia for 11 years and currently invests and advises private equity. Muhammad was a prolific college swimmer for Stanford who held 3 NCAA, US Open, and American Records, and for Team USA at the 2000 SC World Championships, where he won a pair of medals. Muhammad also started a learn-to-swim program with the Boys’ and Girls’ Club of Metro Atlanta, and was a pilot for the USA Swimming Make a Splash program.
As for the other 4 members of the Task Force, Lawrence brings a long tenure of service in various capacities given his stints on the USA Swimming and ASCA Board of Directors. He and Nussbaum are both currently head coaches of club programs, Lake Forest Swim Club and Long Island Swim Club. Jamie Platt also brings coaching experience into the fold, as he was the head coach of Division I La Salle University prior to taking his current position as the executive director of Middle Atlantic Swimming, as well as the non-coach director of the Eastern Swimming Zone. Anne Berry also has coached at essentially every level of the sport and has 20 years of experience as a corporate and government relations professional.
All that is to say that is to say that this Task Force is made up of 9 individuals who are currently or have previously been very intimately involved in the sport at the ground level. There’s a handful of former National Team members, as well as a number of club coaches (or presidents, in Arris-Wilson’s case), an LSC executive director and Zone director, and members who have been involved in learn to swim and swimming outreach initiatives.
USA Swimming also announced that they have selected NU Advisory Partners to lead the search for the next CEO. NU Advisory Partners was founded in 2023 and specializes in sports and technology hires. The founders account for decades of experience at major search firms. CEO Nada Usina was a captain for the Florida State women’s swim team, where she swam from 1990-1994. USA Swimming Board Chair Chris Brearton said on the selection that “NU Advisory Partners brings a modern and professional approach to this critical process.”