New USA Triathlon CEO Rocky Harris has restructured the NGB's senior staff, cutting his direct reports, combining related business units and recruiting a new chief of staff to oversee day-to-day work. The organization Harris inherited from his predecessor, Rob Urbach, in September had nine business units with leaders who all reported to the CEO. Those nine groups have been reorganized into one of four broader divisions -- the national office (overall management and back office); sport development (all grassroots athletic events and membership work); marketing and communications; and high performance (the elite international and Olympic teams). Only those four leaders will report to Harris now. “What we had were nine different business units all rolling up, and not a lot of interconnectivity between them,” said Harris, who most recently was COO of Arizona State athletics. “There were almost like nine separate businesses within a business, and the chief of staff will work on connecting those positions.” The still-to-be-hired Chief of Staff will lead the national office, which will now include IT along with HR and finance. The new sport development group will be led by current COO Tim Yount, and include membership services, national events, event services and oversight of all scholastic and club programs. Marketing and communications will still be led by CMO Chuck Menke; and High Performance will still be led by GM Andy Schmitz.
LOOKING TO FILL NEW POSITIONS: Along with the new Chief of Staff, Harris is also hiring two new positions in marketing: a senior manager of business development to lead sponsorship development and a social media coordinator. Separately, USAT is hiring an Exec Dir for its philanthropic foundation. The business development and foundation director positions will both be roles devoted to revenue generation full-time, which Harris hopes will free up others to focus on the NGB’s strategic mission. “(The changes) free me up now to be able to focus on growth and creating a value proposition for all stakeholders, rather than operating the business on a day-to-day basis,” Harris said. “I’ll have four people to do that and I trust to do that.” Harris’ reorganization is similar to changes made by new USA Swimming CEO Tim Hinchey, who like Harris, had not previously worked for an Olympic sport NGB.
