FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2017
Portsmouth, R.I. – US Sailing today named veteran business consultant and former 470 athlete Jim Campbell (Stoughton, Wisc.) as Chief Business Officer of U.S. Olympic Sailing. Campbell will be the first CBO in the US Sailing Team’s history, and will be focused on connecting needed funding to athletes, building a new performance system and helping to transform the Olympic sailing program into a professional sports team. Campbell will join two-time Olympic Champion Malcolm Page (Newport, R.I.), who was named Chief of U.S. Olympic Sailing in late 2016, to form a restructured and focused leadership team.
“Jim brings tremendous experience, passion and organizational acumen to our Olympic program,” said Jack Gierhart, US Sailing CEO. “We could not be more excited for Jim to join with Malcolm and our experienced staff and coaches to build a formidable, holistic performance system within which our sailors will flourish.”
Campbell’s business career has seen him contribute to several Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, JPMorgan Chase, The Walt Disney Company, Hewlett Packard, AT&T, Delta Airlines and others. As a sailor, Campbell campaigned for the 1976 and 1980 Olympics in the Men’s 470 class over seven years. Campbell qualified for the U.S. Sailing Team three times and consistently finished within the top 10 internationally during an era of notable U.S. success in the 470.
“I decided to join the US Sailing Team full-time out of a strong personal desire to see the United States get back onto the top of the podium in our sport,” said Campbell, who was initially recruited by US Sailing President Bruce Burton (Vero Beach, Fla.) as a volunteer consultant in late 2015. “When I got pulled into the team, and we began focusing on evaluating our trajectory towards Tokyo 2020, the project immediately captured me. US Sailing as a whole is committed to building much more than a better fundraising apparatus for the program. We are going to build a gold medal system from the ground up. It will be a hybrid system tailored to the unique set of opportunities and challenges we face in the U.S. today. Working with Malcolm Page, one of the most accomplished Olympic Champions of this era, will be key to creating our new winning formula. US Sailing will be leveraging and gaining insight from an impressive group of leaders that are eager to build this new system, and produce great results.”
About the US Sailing Team
The US Sailing Team is managed by the United States Sailing Association (US Sailing), the national governing body for the sport of sailing and sailboat racing. The top boats in each Olympic class are selected annually to be members of the US Sailing Team. US Sailing helps these elite athletes with financial, logistical, coaching, technical, fitness, marketing and communications support. US Sailing Team sponsors include Harken, McLube, Groupe Beneteau, and Marlow Ropes. For more information, please visit www.ussailing.org/olympics
About US Sailing
The United States Sailing Association (US Sailing), the national governing body for sailing, provides leadership, integrity, and growth for the sport in the United States. Founded in 1897 and headquartered in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, US Sailing is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization. US Sailing offers training and education programs for instructors and race officials, supports a wide range of sailing organizations and communities, issues offshore rating certificates, and provides administration and oversight of competitive sailing across the country, including National Championships and the US Sailing Team. For more information, please visit www.ussailing.org
Contact: Will Ricketson, Olympic Communications Manager, US Sailing
Email: willricketson@ussailing.org
Phone: +1 978 697 2384 (USA)