USA Cycling names communications director

USA Cycling named a new director of media and communications on Wednesday, filling one of two key positions left open last week after the departures of former media director Andy Lee and national events director Justin Rogers.

USA Cycling CEO Steve Johnson said that Andrea Smith, who previously served as communications manager, has been promoted to fill the post vacated by Lee.

A long-time USA Cycling employee, Lee left the post last week, as did Rogers, who was responsible for coordinating and promoting the governing body’s national series events, including road racing’s National Racing Calendar.

Johnson declined to discuss the reasons behind the sudden departures of two senior level staff members, noting that “it is our standard policy not to discuss personnel matters.”

Neither Lee nor Johnson could be reached for comment.

“It’s not a shake-up of staff here,” Johnson told VeloNews. “They (the vacancies) are not related. It’s coincidental that we’ve had two openings in a week, but you have to remember that both positions are characterized by constant turnover. I think since I’ve been here, we’ve had five event directors and five or six communications directors. The company is maturing and turnover is part of that.”

Johnson said USA Cycling has not yet named an event director and will likely conduct a national search to fill the position. Smith, however, was a logical candidate to fill the post of communications director, said Johnson.

Prior to her arrival at USA Cycling, Smith served as head of public relations for the Snowshoe Mountain Resort in West Virginia and as a public relations assistant at the non-profit HospiceCare in Charleston, West Virgina. She holds a master’s of science in athletic administration from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.

Johnson said Smith’s promotion is reflective of “a well-developed personnel policy at USA Cycling.”

“My goal is to grow employees through the company,” he said. “We’ve matured a lot and that also means that employees have the opportunity to develop along with the company. If it’s apparent, however, that they are not, we have a clear structure in which they are put on notice so that they can take corrective steps. At some point, if they don’t meet those goals, they can be subject to termination.”

Johnson said the governing body’s primary goals require it to operate as a business and he is reluctant to refer to the organization as “a federation” anymore.

“We’re not the same group of volunteers we were 20 or 30 years ago, stuffing envelopes and sticking membership forms in cardboard boxes,” he said. “USA Cycling is a business, a customer service company, whose priority is to take care of our membership. The main question we have to ask is whether we are doing everything we can to ensure our members are having a great time. I think we’ve come a long way in the last 10 years and I expect that improvement to continue.”

FILED UNDER: News / Road