USA Cycling Board of Directors

Derek joined USA Cycling as President and Chief Executive Officer in June, 2015, bringing with him a passion for cycling, remarkable business management experience, and deep knowledge of the sport as a former professional cyclist.  In his first year at USA Cycling, Derek has focused on increasing the organization’s support of amateur racing, enhanced anti-doping, increasing communication and transparency, and broadening the purpose of the organization to incorporate enthusiasts and mass participation events.

Derek grew up in Massachusetts and discovered his lifelong passion for cycling as a student at Princeton when he joined its collegiate cycling program.  During his 15-year career in the sport, he won the national professional criterium championship and earned a Pan American Games gold medal in the team pursuit. He also represented the United States in the team pursuit at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and toed the line at European classics like Paris-Roubaix and Ghent-Wevelgem.

After retiring from cycling in 2002, Derek attained an MBA from Harvard Business School and began a career in management consulting - first with Ernst & Young in Boston and then with McKinsey in London. At McKinsey, he focused on change programs and performance transformations across a range of commercial and governmental organizations.  While on sabbatical from McKinsey, Derek led the transformation of the HUBZone program within the US Small Business Administration in Washington, DC.

Prior to taking the helm at USA Cycling, Derek lived in London where he served as an executive at Wiggle, the world’s largest online retailer of cycling and triathlon equipment. As director of the company’s $100m international business, he was responsible for leading the division serving the needs of cycling, running, and triathlon enthusiasts across the globe.

Derek is married and has two daughters.

Bob is an entrepreneur and general manager with 25 years of experience in building high performance organizations in rapidly changing and highly competitive environments. Bob’s professional career began at TRW in space technology and information systems business units, and moved quickly into the emerging wireless communications industry in 1985. With a small group of partners, Bob cofounded Western Wireless Corporation (now ALLTEL) and later Voicestream Wireless (Now T-Mobile).

In 2005, Bob founded High Road Sports, Inc., a sports management company that owned and operated Team HTC-Highroad and predecessors, which were the most successful men’s and women’s professional cycling teams in the world from 2008 through 2011. Currently, Bob is a director of World Triathlon Corporation, as well as an advisor for leading private equity firms. He holds Bachelor of Science and MBA degrees from the University of California.

Joining the board in 2012, Alex Nieroth was most recently a Principal at Team Epic/Velocity, one of the leading sports and entertainment marketing services companies in the US, a firm he co-founded in 1999. He started his corporate employment in Brand Management Marketing at Procter & Gamble/Vicks prior to launching a 30+ year career in marketing consulting beginning at Connecticut Consulting Group where he managed the NFL among other clients. His experience in multiple marketing agencies which he started and led has included working with corporate clients such as Gillette, Mars, AT&T, General Motors, and Texaco with such rightsholders as the World Cup, Olympics, NFL, MLB, NASCAR and the Rolling Stones. His more strategically focused and results oriented approach to sponsorship marketing was featured in Business Week magazine as having contributed to a sea change in the sponsorship industry at a time when lifestyle sponsorship investment was not traditionally leveraged, measured and fully optimized.
 
He was born in Paris, France and graduated from Georgetown University in 1973 and the Columbia University Graduate School of Business in 1975. He has a daughter and son and resides with his wife of 37 years, Penny, outside of Park City, Utah and in Nantucket, Mass. and is a road and mountain bike rider.

B.A. is the CEO of the American Bicycle Association where he has served the organization for the past 16 years.  Under his leadership, the ABA has become the world's largest sanctioning body for the sport of bicycle motocross (BMX).  The organization consists of over 70,000 members racing at more than 380 sanctioned BMX race tracks under the brands USA BMX and BMX Canada.  As part of the management team, B.A. has brought innovative ideas to the sport and supported the integration of BMX into the Olympics in 2008.
 
In addition to his duties with the ABA, B.A. also serves as the Chairmen of the Board for the USA BMX Foundation.  The foundation successfully manages the National BMX Hall of Fame, the USA BMX Race for Life and the Bob Warnicke Scholarship Series.  The Race for Life series annually donates more the $250,000 a year to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society of America, while the Bob Warnicke Scholarship Series annually provides scholarships in excess of $75,000 to deserving BMX racers.

A graduate of Texas State University, he holds a degree in business administration with a minor in marketing.  He currently resides in Chandler, Arizona with his wife Amy and sons Gavin and Shane.
 

Matt Barger is the managing member of MRB Capital, LLC and a senior advisor at Hellman & Friedman, LLC, a private equity firm with over $25 billion assets under management. Mr. Barger serves on the board of directors of Hall Capital Partners LLC and Artisan Partners Asset Management. Formerly, he was a director of Brinson Partners, Inc., General Cellular Corporation (the predecessor to Western Wireless Corp. and VoiceStream Wireless), Hoyts Cinemas, John Fairfax Holdings Ltd., Mitchell International, Inc., Mondrian Investment Partners, National Radio Partners, L.P., Neverfail Springwater, Ltd., Oechsle International, L.P., and Thomas Weisel Partners Group.

He graduated from Yale University Magna Cum Laude with distinction in the major in 1979, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1983, where he was an Arjay Miller Scholar. Mr. Barger currently serves on the advisory council of the Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford University, as a member of the board of trustees of the California Academy of the Sciences, and as a director of the San Francisco Free Clinic and USA Cycling Development Foundation.

John Bucksbaum is the founder of Bucksbaum Retail Properties, LLC. He previously served as chairman and CEO of General Growth Properties, Inc., a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) which had ownership and management interest in over 200 regional and super regional shopping malls in 44 states. The company portfolio totaled approximately 200 million square feet of space.

Bucksbaum received his bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Denver, Denver, Colorado in 1978. Professional affiliations include the following: past worldwide chairman of the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC); trustee and member of the executive committee of ICSC; past chairman of the Zell/Lurie Real Estate Center at The Wharton School; trustee of the Urban Land Institute (ULI). In addition, Bucksbaum serves on the boards of the University of Chicago Hospitals, The Field Museum, the Chicago Sports Commission, the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team, the Paralympics Advisory Committee to the U.S. Olympic Committee, Young Presidents Organization and the Advisory Board of the Chicago Chapter of the American Jewish Committee.

John and his wife, Jackie, are the parents of Max and Eli Bucksbaum.

Stephen Ettinger is a five-time Mountain Bike National Champion and 2014 Pan American Champion who has represented the USA at nine world championships and two Pan American Games.
 
Mr. Ettinger kicked off his cycling career as a 12-year-old at grassroots events in Washington State and over the years worked his way up into the elite fields by way of collegiate racing. A product of USA Cycling’s U23 development program, Ettinger spent many months racing against the world’s best U23s in Europe before being named USA Cycling Athlete of the Year in 2011 and being named to the Olympic Long Team in 2012. As his professional career took off, he spent three years with Swiss-based BMC Mountain Bike Racing Team before joining the Sho-Air/Cannondale Professional Mountain Bike Team in 2015 and again being named to the Olympic long team, this time for the 2016 Games.
 
Ettinger has sat on USA Cycling’s Mountain Bike Sport Committee since 2012 as its Male Athlete Representative and he is incredibly passionate about getting kids on bikes. He has been actively involved as a mentor with the Bear Development Team since 2013 and he regularly volunteers to lead kids’ rides with Washington-based March Northwest and Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition. 
 
Mr. Ettinger is also a USA Cycling certified coach who graduated Cum Laude from Montana State University in 2011 with a Bachelor’s in Human Health and Physiology.

David Helfrich is cofounder and managing director of Garnett & Helfrich Capital, a $350 million Venture Buyout fund that invests in technology start-ups and in corporate spin-outs. Prior to Garnett & Helfrich Capital, Mr. Helfrich was one of the three managing directors who started ComVentures, a $1.5 billion technology venture capital firm.

Mr. Helfrich has spent the past 15 years launching and managing these two private equity and venture capital funds. Prior to that he spent 10 years as a technology entrepreneur. Mr. Helfrich played a key role in founding and leading four networking start-ups, three of which resulted in multi-billion dollar IPOs (Newbridge Networks, Ascend Communications, and Copper Mountain Networks) and a fourth (Centrum) that was acquired by 3Com (acq. by HP).

Mr. Helfrich graduated from California State University with a degree in Business Administration and holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He’s currently on the board of directors of Actian Corporation and MTI Technology.

Beth has over 10 years of experience working in public health and for non-profit organizations through project management, program planning, and policy. Her specific interest is in expanding health access in low-income communities.  Beth received her bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University and master's Degree in Healthcare Administration from California State University - East Bay.  
 
After becoming involved with cycling as a commuter, Beth began racing locally in 2007 and raced professionally for five years. She is a four-time national champion (Points Race, Omnium, Team Pursuit), two-time Pan American Champion (Scratch, Team Pursuit), and World Cup medalist (Points Race). She raced with the U.S. National Team from 2012-2016 and now continues to stay active in the sport by coaching young riders and volunteering with junior and women's programs at her local track, Hellyer Velodrome.
 

Gina Kavesh has actively followed local and national bicycle racing for the past two decades. Her focus has been on encouraging newcomers (specifically women), teaching skills, and mentoring. She has helped create and instruct women's clinics in Washington and California, and has been a leader in a Washington State race series aimed at beginner women.

Beyond her women's initiatives, Kavesh has served as president of the Washington State Bicycle Association's (WSBA) Junior Committee and the co-founder of the WSBA Junior Cycling Camp. Outside of cycling, Kavesh has worked as a CFO and CIO for a regional retain chain for 25 years and is currently an operations and systems consultant for small businesses.

Nancy is the executive director of Morgan McKenna & Associates, consulting in strategic sales management and business development. She has worked with global technology companies including Cisco Systems, EMC, VMware, Systems Management Arts, Splunk, SITA/Equant and several software start-ups in Australia/New Zealand, Asian-Pacific and global markets. Nancy has an MBA from Macquarie University Graduate School of Management (Sydney) and a B.A. in Communications from the University of Denver.

She also works with nonprofits including the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), The Murie Center, and Womentum (Wyoming Women’s mentoring). Nancy has lived in Jackson Hole since 2008 where she volunteers at several community organizations, as well as skis, bikes, hikes, and fishes. She has also lived in Australia and France, where she worked as a ski instructor in Chamonix and did international public relations for Les Arcs, as well as executive roles in travel and technology. She has a lifelong love of cycling, nature and wilderness, and is married with three grown sons.

A well-recognized figure in the mountain biking industry, Dorothy Nichols is currently the national sales manager for Shebeest. She has also managed the Yeti Mountain Bike Team, operated an industry leadership conference with Catalyst Communication, and worked as director of event marketing for Todson brands.

Previously, Nichols played a role in founding the former National Off-road Bicycle Association (NORBA) and helped the series' eight events gain momentum. She also assisted in drafting the policies to start negotiating with the UCI to establish mountain biking as an Olympic sport.

Currently, Nichols is a UCI International Mountain Bike Commissaire who regularly works at national and international-level events. She is a member of USA Cycling's Mountain Bike Sport Committee and Women's Sub-Committee. She also works with the Executive Women in Cycling and OIWC advisory panel.

Michael E. Patterson is the former vice chairman of JPMorgan, working with the financial giant from 1987-2009. Prior to his employment with JPMorgan, Michael practiced law in New York and Paris as a partner of Debevoise & Plimpton. He is a member of the boards of The Trust for Public Land, The Hastings Center, and the USA Cycling Development Foundation, and also serves as chairman of the board of The Child School.

A native of New York State, Michael completed his undergraduate work at Harvard and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Columbia Law School. He lives with his wife, Elena, in New York City and Connecticut and is a bicycle racer.

Peterson has been racing bikes and coaching cyclists for more than 33 years. He is a USA Cycling Level 2 coach and a three-time national champion. As Marian University's head coach for the past decade, Peterson has grown the school's cycling program into one of the largest and most successful in the nation, and has led the Knights to multiple national championship titles, as well as overall USA Cycling Collegiate Team Omnium awards.

Peterson is also Executive Director of the Indy Cycloplex (home to the Major Taylor Velodrome), and the founder and director of Power Booster, Indianapolis' premier indoor cycling studio. He has served on USA Cycling's Collegiate Committee since 2010 and has also served on the boards of the Bicycle Action Project (1998-2004) and The Orchard School (2009-2015).

Peterson completed his undergraduate studies at Purdue University in 1988 before serving two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He completed his post-graduate studies at Butler University in 1999 while teaching at the Orchard School in Indianapolis. Dean, and his wife Shari, live in Indianapolis and have two children in college.

With several decades of experience in the cycling industry, Sean Petty joined the board of directors in September 2014 after 20 years of employment with USA Cycling, including nearly seven years as its chief operating officer. During his time as the managing director of athlete performance, Sean was responsible for implementing USA Cycling’s fledgling European development program, hiring its first European director, and opening the program’s Belgian base of operations.

Sean has been a member of the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) Road Commission, which oversees elite, U23 and junior road racing for the international federation, since 2005 and is the only member of the UCI Road Commission from outside of Europe.

His experience in cycling dates back to 1985 when he joined The Southland Corporation, the parent company of 7-Eleven, where he managed the 7-Eleven Cycling Team program, which was the first American team to compete in the Tour de France and earn the yellow race leader’s jersey. He also managed 7-Eleven’s sponsorship of a national road race series and a national track cycling race series as well as their involvement with the 1986 World Cycling Championships.

He has attended five Summer Olympic Games, 44 world championships, and one Pan American Games in various capacities. He was the team leader for the 2000 U.S. Olympic cycling delegation in Sydney, Australia, which included 27 athletes and 16 staff members, and won three Olympic medals. Sean, a proud, native Texan, earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Texas A&M University in 1980. He is married and has four children (three girls and one boy).

Alison Tetrick has been a professional cyclist for the last five years and currently races for Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies. Tetrick helped Astana-BePink to a 2014 World Championships bronze medal in the team time trial and has represented the United States at the Pan American Games, Tour of Qatar, Giro Rosa and the Tour of New Zealand.
 
Tetrick serves on the Board of Advisory for the Women's Cycling Association and works with Amgen's Breakaway from Cancer. She is passionate about advocacy, and growing the sport of cycling through increasing awareness and professionalism. Tetrick is also in graduate school for neuropsychology.
 

Arielle Verhaaren is one of the most successful American BMX racers and was the first American woman to win a UCI BMX Supercross World Cup.
 
Having started her BMX racing career at the age of five, she won multiple national titles as an amateur before turning pro at the age of 15. While juggling her professional racing career with a college education, she was selected as an alternate to the 2008 Olympic Team and the same year won the overall UCI World Cup series. In 2009 she won a bronze medal at the UCI World Championships and in 2011 she became the first American woman to win a UCI BMX Supercross World Cup, a feat she followed up with a Pan American Games silver medal. In 2012, Arielle was the first athlete selected to the London Olympic BMX Team but a training accident the day prior to departure left her cheering for her teammates from the hospital. She returned to the World Cup circuit in 2013 and ended the season ranked second overall before officially retiring.
 
Arielle holds a BS in Exercise Science from Brigham Young University and is currently working on an MBA from Devry. She spends her free time chasing her daughter, coaching the future generation of BMX athletes, and sneaking in rides and races whenever possible.
 

Brook is a longtime marketing and promotions executive with more than 35 years of sporting events production experience, particularly with a strong emphasis on cycling. In 2011, he was elected to USA Cycling's Cyclocross Sport Committee, and is a member of the board of directors of AIOCC, the Association of International Cyclocross Organizers.

Watts is a graduate of the University of Texas and an avid cyclist who proudly — or embarrassingly — claims to have cyclo-cross shoes older than any current professional racer. Watts' lifelong passion for cycling is infectious as he continuously raises the bar to expand the sport.