Leadership Change at USA Curling

August 26, 2019 - 6:18pm -- Doug Potter

USA Curling has announced that CEO Rick Patzke is leaving. The board has appointed Rich Lepping, immediate past board chair, as interim CEO. Lepping has served as president of the Wisconsin State Curling Association and the Madison Curling Club, and is a USCA representative for the World Curling Federation. He has more than 30 years of corporate franchise restaurant experience and earned a bachelor’s of business education from Eastern Michigan University.

The board sincerely thanks Rick Patzke for his two decades of service to USA Curling. His dedication to the growth of our sport nationally can be attributed to the success of curling clubs throughout the country.

As your representative on the board of directors, I assure you that we made this change with due deliberation and awareness of the consequences. We are dedicated to:
• ensuring USCA is fully promoting membership growth and development
• operating with honesty, transparency and integrity
• athlete welfare by providing the best training environment possible
• competitive excellence

As members of Granite CC, you are also members of USA Curling and have a stake in its success. Your representation to USA Curling is through the Washington State Curling Association (WSCA) and the director from the WSCA on the USA Curling board (that would be me). Please feel free to let me know your thoughts and suggestions for the future of USA Curling and for what characteristics we should be looking for in a permanent CEO.