Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Forty Under 40

Forty Under 40

Sandusky

Sandusky
TAMMY LEATHEM
The U.S. Olympic Committee was in complete disrepair in late 2009 when the organization’s then CEO, Stephanie Streeter, invited Patrick Sandusky to breakfast.

The International Olympic Committee and NBC were still irritated by the USOC’s plans to launch an Olympic network; Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Games ended in embarrassing fashion; and NBC Sports & Olympics Chairman Dick Ebersol and national governing body leaders were mounting a public campaign to change the USOC’s leadership.

So when Streeter, who was gauging Sandusky’s interest in a job, asked the former communications director for Chicago’s Olympic bid what his advice to her would be if he were hired as the USOC chief communications officer, he answered her directly.

“If I was working for you, I’d have you think long and hard if you want to stay in the job,” Sandusky said.

“So you would advise me to resign?” Streeter asked.

“I’m just telling you, honestly, yes,” Sandusky answered.

Sandusky got the job (Streeter later stepped aside), and his emphasis on honesty in both internal and external communications has been critical to the USOC’s effort to restore its image and credibility both at home and abroad.

More than a year after Sandusky was hired, the USOC is seen as a legitimate and invested partner in the Olympic movement. Sandusky shares the credit for that with USOC Chairman Larry Probst and CEO Scott Blackmun. He advised both leaders to become more engaged with the media, encouraged them to create a more transparent organization, and used his six-plus years of experience in the Olympic movement to build stronger ties with the IOC and other national organizing committees.

“He’s played a significant role in us being taken seriously,” Blackmun said.

In addition to working with USOC leaders on communications, Sandusky reorganized the communications department to focus on sponsor programs, community affairs, athlete services and Olympic media operations.

Age: 36
Title: Chief communications officer
Organization: United States Olympic Committee
Education: B.A., Northern Illinois University
Family: Wife, Kate; twins, Brendan and Jessica (18 months)
Career: Dekalb Chronicle, 1996; Donnellon PR, 1997; Kemper Sports, 1998-99; H&K, 1999-2009; joined the USOC in 2009
Last vacation: Japan in August
What's on your iPod: Mumford and Sons, Wilco, My Morning Jacket, Lyle Lovett
Best stress release: Skiing

Pet peeve: Meetings that last more than 10 min-
utes. People who read PowerPoint slides verbatim while presenting them to you.
Greatest achievement: Surviving the last 18 months. The end of Chicago’s bid, birth of twins,
new job and new city. My wife gets 75 percent of the
credit.
Greatest disappointment: Chicago losing the 2016 Olympic Games
Fantasy job: General manager of the Chicago Bears
Business advice: Be yourself but be willing to
adapt to the room you’re in and the company you’re with. Surround yourself with talented people, who are
passionate about what they do, and success will
come naturally.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2011/03/21/Forty-Under-40/Patrick-Sandusky.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2011/03/21/Forty-Under-40/Patrick-Sandusky.aspx

CLOSE