DENVER—Former Microsoft executive Robbie Bach is among the finalists to fill some newly created spots on the U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors.
Former John Hancock CEO James Benson, four-time Olympian Nina Kemppel, former Visa executive Susanne Lyons and USA Hockey executive director Dave Ogrean are the other candidates.
The current USOC board will vote “yes” or “no” on the five candidates at its quarterly meeting Thursday.
Four of the spots are newly created as a result of a task force, chaired by former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, that recommended a slightly larger board with more voices from outside the Olympic movement. The fifth is for a position that became vacant when Stephanie Streeter stepped down to become the interim CEO last year.
Bach, who spent 22 years with Microsoft, is also heavily involved with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Bach, Benson and Lyons will fill so-called “independent” seats on the board—designed to bring people without direct ties to the Olympics into the decision-making process.
Benson is founder and chairman of World T.E.A.M. Sports, an organization dedicated to providing opportunities through sport for people with disabilities, and is expected to be a voice for paralympic athletes on the board.
Kemppel recently chaired a USOC task force to promote ideas for safe training environments for athletes. She also serves on the Athletes’ Advisory Council (AAC) Paralympic Task Force and will fill a spot to represent the AAC.
Ogrean, a 30-year veteran of the Olympic movement, would fill a new spot representing NGBs.
If, as expected, all the members are approved, the board’s size would go from 11 to 15. It was as high as 125 until reforms in 2003 led to a major streamlining of the governance process.
But Streeter’s unexpected and unpopular emergence as CEO last year exposed flaws in the new system. That led to the Tagliabue commission, which also recommended eliminating term limits for the chairman and adding the CEO—now Scott Blackmun—as a nonvoting member of the board.
