Far Hills, N.J. (2/3/07) – Walter W. Driver Jr., 61, of Atlanta, Ga., has been elected to serve a second one-year term as president of the United States Golf Association. The election of officers and the full 15-member USGA Executive Committee took place Feb. 3, at the USGA’s Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif.
As president, Driver will continue to lead the USGA’s professional staff and nearly 1,400 volunteers who serve on more than 30 committees.
Driver is Chairman-Southeast of Goldman, Sachs and Co., a leading global investment banking, securities and investment management firm. He is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Texas Law School. He began his service on the Executive Committee as general counsel in 1997 and was named to the Committee two years later. He served two years as treasurer and four years as vice president.
The other elected officers of the Executive Committee are: James F. Vernon of Pasadena, Calif., and James B. Hyler Jr. of Raleigh, N.C., as vice presidents; Emily R. (Missy) Crisp of Mill Neck, N.Y., as secretary; and Fredric C. Nelson of San Francisco, Calif., as treasurer.
The other seven returning members of the Executive Committee are: James T. Bunch of Denver, Colo.; Irving Fish of Wayzata, Minn.; William M. Lewis Jr. of New York, N.Y.; Pat McKinney of Charleston, S.C.; Cameron Jay Rains of San Diego, Calif.; Loren Singletary of Houston, Texas; and Steve Smyers of Lakeland, Fla.
Glen Nager, a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue, has been chosen as the Association’s general counsel for a second consecutive year.
There are three newly elected members of the Executive Committee for 2007. They are Christie Austin of Cherry Hills Village, Colo.; John Kim of Farmington, Conn.; and Geoffrey Yang of Menlo Park, Calif.
Austin, 49, executive vice president since 2003 of Marsico Capital Management, a Denver-based asset management firm, has been involved in the last two USGA championships held at Cherry Hills Country Club in Cherry Hills Village. Most recently, she served as vice chairman of the 2005 U.S. Women’s Open at Cherry Hills. She also was registration chairman for the 1993 U.S. Senior Open at Cherry Hills. A member at Cherry Hills, she recently won her 11th Club championship. She also has qualified for seven U.S. Women’s Mid-Amateur championships.
Professionally, Austin, a CPA, served as MCM’s chief financial officer from its formation in 1997 until 2003. Prior to 1997, she helped found Englewood Mortgage Company in 1987 with her husband, Bob. They have two children, Michael and Julie. She is a graduate of the University of Colorado.
Kim, 46, has been president of Prudential Retirement (formerly CIGNA Retirement and Investments) since 2002, a leading plan provider that serves more than three million customers and manages roughly $140 billion in assets. The company has 2,500 employees.
A graduate of the University of Michigan (BBA) and the University of Connecticut (MBA), Kim is a chartered financial analyst who has been an industry leader since 1995, when he served as chief executive officer at Aeltus Investment Management. In 2001, he moved to the president and chief executive officer role of BondBook, LLC.
He and his wife, Diane, have three children: Andrew, Emily and Caroline.
Yang, 47, is a founding partner and managing director of Redpoint Ventures, a family of early stage venture capital funds based in California’s Silicon Valley. He is responsible for the firm’s investments in new companies, such as Ask Jeeves, Excite, MySpace, TiVo, Foundry Networks and Juniper Networks. Prior to 1999, Yang was a general partner with Institutional Venture Partners for 12 years.
Born in New York, N.Y., Yang is a 1981 graduate of Princeton University. He earned a master’s degree in business from Stanford University in 1985.
Three members of the 2006 Committee who have retired from active duty are Craig Ammerman of Cherry Hill, N.J.; Lewis Blakey of Alexandria, Va.; and James Reinhart of Mequon, Wis.
According to USGA by-law provisions, the 2008 Nominating Committee will consist of two recent USGA past presidents and three at-large committee members. It will be comprised by USGA past Presidents Trey Holland (2000-01) and Reed Mackenzie (2002-03) and three at-large members – Peter James of Los Angeles, Calif., Christopher Liedel of Reston, Va., and Leslie Turner of Minneapolis, Minn. James is a former Executive Committee member. Liedel serves as Chief Financial Officer of the National Geographic Society located in Washington, D.C. Turner is a former member of the USGA Women’s Committee.
The USGA is the national governing body of golf in the United States and Mexico. These nations together comprise more than half the world’s golfers and courses. The Association’s most visible role is conducting 13 national championships, including the U.S. Open, U.S. Women’s Open and U.S. Senior Open. Ten additional USGA national championships are exclusively for amateurs, and include the U.S. Amateur and the U.S. Women’s Amateur.
The USGA also writes the Rules of Golf, conducts equipment testing, maintains an official Handicap System and administers an ongoing "For the Good of the Game" grants program, which has allocated more than $53 million over the last 10 years to programs that seek to grow the game. For more information about the USGA, visit www.usga.org.
C 2007 United States Golf Association. All Rights Reserved.
Contact:
Craig Smith
csmith@usga.org
Web address: www.usga.org
USGA phone: (908) 234-2300, Cell (908) 216-3229
