USOC Fills CEO Position From Inside

Scott Blackmun, a senior U.S. Olympic committee executive, was named its acting CEO on Tuesday, replacing Norm Blake.

Blake had announced his resignation last week amid escalating internal resistance to him and his wide-ranging plan to remake the USOC into a more business-savvy enterprise.

Blackmun’s appointment, announced at USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo., by Chairman Bill Hybl, is effective immediately. The USOC’s policy-making Executive Committee approved Blackmun’s appointment unanimously, Hybl said.

Blake had indicated last week that he might stay on through the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. He said Tuesday, however, that he now believes the USOC is best served by the quick appointment of a successor who understands “the inner workings of this organization.”

Hybl said, “I think that once an individual makes a decision they’re going to leave, it becomes very difficult as time goes on to stay. Norm decided the time was now.”

He added, “Norm has made some significant contributions to this organization, which I believe will be consolidated--and I think probably even expanded upon--by Scott, who understands the organization, has the ability to create consensus and is also a team builder.”

Blackmun, 43, has worked with the USOC since 1991 on legal and corporate matters. He joined the USOC in January 1999 as general counsel and director of legal affairs. On April 19, he was named senior managing director for sport resources as part of a sweeping USOC restructuring instituted by Blake.

Blackmun graduated in 1979 from Dartmouth College and in 1982 from Stanford Law School. He and his wife, Ann, have three children.

“The senior management team believes in the vision that Norm laid out in April and that was approved by the Executive Committee,” Blackmun said.

“We’re all encouraged that the Executive Committee remains committed to the realization of that vision.”

Blake, 58, came to the USOC in February--as its first CEO--after earning a reputation in the corporate arena as a turnaround artist.

He arrived after guiding Promus Hotel Corp. to a lucrative merger with Hilton Hotels and after leading U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty, an insurance and financial company, from the brink of bankruptcy to a $250-million profit in 1998.

With an annual budget that’s now about $110 million, the USOC had long ago outgrown its traditional volunteer-driven approach. Blake was given a three-year contract with day-to-day control and authority previously shared by the president and executive director.

In short order, he fired about 40 employees from the 500-member staff and reduced the number of working committees and task forces from more than 40 to four.

Most controversially, he put together a plan to tie USOC funding to various sports to medal counts.

Over the summer, the Executive Committee endorsed his plan.

But Blake said last week in announcing his resignation that there remains resistance from those opposed to imposing the sort of plan familiar in the business world on a nonprofit institution.