Qualifications
As a young athlete the national governing body for the Olympic sport of Taekwondo recognized Herb’s talent for leadership. He was elected to the USA Taekwondo Board of Directors and subsequently to its Executive Board of Directors. In this capacity he developed a keen understanding of the challenges faced by a non-profit sport corporation with an annual budget of $3 million. Herb invigorated the Board to develop new business relationships to bolster their financial portfolio. Membership and revenue grew under the joint efforts of the Board and Executive direction.This caught the attention of the United States Olympic Committee (“USOC”), which soon asked him to begin serving on various committees within the USOC (Executive Committee, Membership and Credentials Committee, International Relations Committee, and Athletic Advisory Committee), and most recently Herb was elected to serve on the Board of Directors, which sets policy and oversees a $440 million quadrennial budget (what is often misunderstood about is that the USOC is a performance based corporation that balances limited resources to achieve measureable and tangible goals). While on the Board of Directors he was asked to serve on the High Level Strategic Planning Committee, which was formed to develop a new strategy for the future, as well as to evaluate budget allocations, and all hard facilities and programs of the organization. This Committee was comprised of the organization's best minds including Dr. Harvey Schiller (CEO of Yankees/Nets), Michael Lenard (former USOC Vice President), and John Krimsky (former USOC Chief Financial Officer).
Herb was also asked to serve on the International Relations Committee. While on this committee he was tasked to work for the Olympic Council of Asia (‘OCA”) to develop new programs for over 45 member nations. Most notably Herb traveled to Afghanistan after the war to rebuild and develop their Olympic sports program. For his successful efforts there, Herb was awarded the George Steinbrenner Award, which is awarded based on the qualities of leadership, ethical conduct and dedicated responsibility reflected in long-standing contributions to sport.
As he continued his relentless work with the OCA, he was soon hired by the organization as a senior staff member and served on the Budget and Audit Committee for the Media services of the Games. In this capacity Herb worked with a group to oversee a $150 million television contract, which in the end came in on budget and was considered the best broadcast to date.
Serving the USOC allowed Herb to forge a formidable skill set. He was able to work together with others to discover and bring various solutions to fruition where others had failed to do so in the past. As was noted by his peers, Herb had a unique ability to see solutions where others did not and bring differing points of views to a mutually beneficial compromise, which often led to proper execution and success.
