The USTA has announced its new slate of Board of Directors, including the election of Dr. Brian Hainline as USTA Chairman of the Board and President. The new Board has been elected to a two-year term that begins on January 1, 2023.
The 2023-2024 USTA Board of Directors:
Dr. Brian Hainline of the USTA Midwest Section has been elected to serve as the USTA Chairman of the Board and President. This is his fifth term on the USTA Board of Directors, where he mostly recently served as the First Vice President during the 2021-2022 term. Hainline previously served on the USTA Board of Directors as Director at Large in 2007-08, where he was Board Liaison to the Community Tennis Council. He returned to serve as Director at Large in 2017-18, where he was Board Liaison to the Player Development Council; as Vice President in 2019-20, where he was Vice Chair of the Budget Committee and Board Liaison to the Sectional Associations, and as First Vice President in 2021-22.
Hainline played No. 1 singles and doubles in his senior year at the University of Notre Dame, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa (philosophy) before going on to earn his M.D. at the University of Chicago and his neurology specialty at The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. Hainline was a founding member of the USTA Sport Science Committee and has been a member of the International Tennis Federation Sport Science and Medicine Commission since 1993, serving as chair since 2003.
He was the Chief Medical Officer of the US Open Tennis Championships for 16 years and held the same title for the USTA for four years. Currently, Hainline is the NCAA Senior Vice President, Sport Science Institute and Chief Medical Officer. He is the first person to hold this title in the history of the NCAA. Hainline is an accomplished author, having authored/edited nine books (including Positioning Youth Tennis for Success) as well as numerous chapters and peer-reviewed articles. He is actively involved as a volunteer in sports medicine organizations, having served as co-chair of the 2016 International Olympic Committee Consensus Meeting on Pain Management in Elite Athletes, and was also co-chair of the IOC Consensus Meeting on Mental Health in Elite Athletes. Hainline also is a member of the Expert Panel on the 2022 6th International Consensus Meeting on Concussion in Sport, and served as chair of the first-ever international sport-specific mental health summit (Mental Health in Tennis Summit) in 2022.
Hainline is a member of the WTA Tour Player Development Advisory Panel, is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Neurology, and is Clinical Professor of Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Adjunct Clinical Professor of Neurology at Indiana University School of Medicine and NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
Brian Vahaly of the USTA Mid-Atlantic Section has been elected to serve as First Vice President on the USTA Board of Directors. Vahaly has served four non-consecutive terms on the USTA Board, having most recently served as Secretary-Treasurer and Chair of the Budget Committee. Vahaly previously served as Chair of the Audit Committee, and as a member of the Investment Committee. He also was the Board Liaison on both the Player Development and Youth Tennis Councils. Vahaly played professionally for seven years, and peaked at a career-best No. 64 in the world in 2003. He was the only male college graduate in the Top 100 rankings during that time, and the only LGBTQ male athlete to come out having played on the ATP Tour. Vahaly graduated an Academic All-American from the University of Virginia with a double major in finance and business management, and is a three-time All-American, having reached the NCAA singles final in 2001. As a junior player, he won the Easter Bowl. After retiring from professional tennis, Vahaly went on to a career in private equity and venture capital, serving as the Chief Operating Officer at Venturehouse Group and NextGen Venture Partners as well as the CFO of Solidcore. Vahaly is currently the CEO of YouFit Gyms.
Laura F. Canfield of the USTA Middle States Section has been elected to serve her fourth term on the USTA Board of Directors, her third as Vice President. During her most recent term, Canfield served as Board Liaison to the Section Presidents and Delegates and on numerous Task Forces, including Pickleball (chair), USTA National and USTA Sectional Association Bi-lateral Communication and Transparency (co-chair), Social Justice, Sectional/National Budget subcommittee, Shared Services, Governance, and several others. Canfield has been active in the tennis industry for more than 40 years in a wide range of areas, including serving 12 years as executive director of the USTA Middle States Sectional Association; special liaison to the USTA President; special projects coordinator for the USTA; interim executive director with the USTA Eastern, USTA Mid-Atlantic, and USTA Intermountain Sectional Associations. Her volunteer service includes two terms on the USTA Nominating Committee, which Canfield chaired from 2013 to 2014, and eight years on the Board of Directors of USTA Middle States Sectional Association. She was inducted into the USTA Middle States Hall of Fame in 2012. Canfield is co-founder and current program director of the Bucks County Tennis Association, which provides affordable quality tennis programs to over two dozen parks and recreation agencies and schools throughout Bucks County, Pa., servicing more than 2,000 participants annually. Canfield is a past president of the Princeton Tennis Program, was a long-term board member of the Eastern Sectional Association’s Junior Tennis Foundation, and served for more than six years on the Northampton Township (Pa.) Parks and Recreation Board (chair 2016–2017).
Kathleen Francis of the USTA Eastern Section has been elected to serve as a Vice President on the USTA Board of Directors. Francis has more than 30 years of experience leading the development and implementation of high-impact marketing and youth development programs. Her professional career spans corporate, professional sports league, venue, and not-for-profit sectors. Francis has created and executed unique, multi-faceted sports marketing and inclusion strategies for organizations including Major League Baseball, the Meadowlands Sports Complex and the USTA, where she served as Managing Director, Community Tennis Marketing and Development. Currently, she is President of Oasis Sports Ventures, a consulting and grass-roots development agency. She also is Chair and President of Women in Sports and Events, an international organization focused on accelerating the advancement of women in the business of sports. She served two terms on the USTA Nominating Committee. This is her second term on the USTA Board. Francis holds a BA from Xavier University of Louisiana and a MBA from Rutgers University, Graduate School of Management.
J. Christopher Lewis of the USTA Southern California Section (SCTA) has been elected to serve as Secretary-Treasurer on the USTA Board of Directors. Lewis currently is serving his first term as a Director at Large of the USTA. Previously, he served two terms as the President of the SCTA. At the University of Southern California, he earned both an undergraduate degree in Finance and Accounting and a master’s degree in Business Administration. As an undergraduate at USC he was a three-time tennis All-American, was a member of the 1976 team which won the NCAA Team Championship and won the NCAA doubles title in 1977. At USC he also received an NCAA Post Graduate Scholarship which recognizes student-athletes who excel in both athletics and academics. In 1982 Lewis joined RLH Equity Partners, a private investment firm which partners with high growth middle-market service firms. He now serves as the firm’s chairman.
Jeffrey M. Baill of the USTA Northern Section has been elected to serve his fourth term as Director at Large on the USTA Board of Directors. Last term, he served as the Board Liaison to the Adult Tennis Leadership Council, Chair of the Audit Committee, and also chaired a Social Justice Task Force. He was previously a member of the Strategic and Creative Planning Committee. Baill has served in many roles as a USTA national volunteer, including two terms on the Learning and Leadership Development Committee, where he led subcommittees in developing best practices for volunteers and board orientation procedures for the USTA Sectional Association. He has been a member of several governance-related task forces and served a term on the USTA Nominating Committee. He also was chair of the President’s Committee, a member of the Delegates Committee and vice chair of the Grievance Committee. He was the inaugural recipient of the USTA Volunteer Exceptional Service Award in 2016. In the USTA Northern Sectional Association, Baill has served as board member, Vice President, President and Delegate. He also served as the first general counsel for USTA Northern. Baill is a partner at the Yost & Baill law firm in Minneapolis, where he has practiced for the last 40 years. He is currently the Past President of the Hennepin County Bar Association Board of Directors. He has been named a “Super Lawyer” by Thomson Reuters publications and is known as one of the leading authorities on insurance subrogation. He was designated lead subrogation counsel on the I-35W Bridge Collapse case by the District Court in Minnesota and has been involved in several other well-known national law suits involving disasters. He also is certified as a trained mediator and arbitrator. Baill has a long history of involvement on not-for-profit boards. He has served as president of four separate boards of directors and was the founder of the National Association of Subrogation Professionals, an international trade association with more than 3,000 members.
Violet Clark of the USTA Midwest Section has been elected to serve as a Director at Large on the USTA Board of Directors. Clark has served on the USTA Board of Directors for two terms and has volunteered with USTA National on several committees including the Collegiate Committee, Junior Competition Committee, 10 and Under Tennis Committee, Community Tennis Association Committee, and Strategic and Creative Planning Committee. She served with the USTA Midwest Sectional Association from 2007 until the present, including as Sectional Association President. In addition, during that time, she served on many committees of USTA Midwest. Since 2007, Clark has served on the Board of the USTA Midwest Tennis and Education Foundation, including as Vice President. Clark served on the Chicago District Tennis Association Board from 1997 until 2001, and was its first African-American President. Clark also served on the Chicago Tennis Patron’s Board, including as its President from 2002 until 2012. She was inducted into the CDTA Hall of Fame in 2018. Clark graduated with a B.A. from Brown University and a J.D. from Cornell Law School. She is currently Of Counsel at Laner Muchin, Ltd., representing management in employment law and labor relations matters before the EEOC, the Illinois Human Rights Commission, state and federal courts; wage and hour matters before the Illinois and United States Departments of Labor; affirmative action matters; as well as collective bargaining negotiations.
Maggie Chan Jones of the USTA New England Sectionhas been elected to serve her first two-year term as Director at Large on the USTA Board of Directors. Chan Jonesis a recognized executive in business transformation, marketing, and ESG. She has served on the boards of global technology leaders, including Open Systems, an EQT Partners company, as an advisory board member and Sustainability Champion; and most recently at Avast, a UK FTSE 100 company which merged with NortonLifeLock, as a board director, Chair of Security & Privacy Committee, member of Nomination and Audit & Risk Committees. Long an influential business advocate of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI), Chan Jones founded Tenshey, Inc. in 2018 and currently serves as CEO. Through Tenshey, Chan Jones focuses on elevating more women and underrepresented leaders into leadership roles. Tenshey is a recipient of Inc. Magazine’s 2021 Best in Business award, and 2020 Innovations in Diversity Award by Diversity Journal. Prior to founding Tenshey, Chan Jones was the first woman to become global chief marketing officer (CMO) at SAP, the world’s largest enterprise application software provider, where she led the global brand transformation of SAP to becoming the world’s 21st most valuable brand. A highly-collaborative leader, she served as an executive sponsor for D&I and as a member of the SAP Innovation Roundtable. Before that, Chan Jones served as the inaugural North America CMO at Level 3 Communications. Frequently recognized as a thought-leader, she was a recipient of industry awards including Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business (2021), Women of the Decade in Marketing, Branding and Communication (2018); Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs (2017); Woman of the Year (2014). Chan Jones earned her undergraduate degree in business management from Binghamton University, holds a MasterofBusiness Administration (MBA) degree from Cornell University, and received The Corporate Director Certificate from Harvard Business School.
William (Bill) McGugin of the USTA Southern Section has been elected to serve his first two-year term as Director at Large on the USTA Board of Directors. McGugin is President and CEO of Iroquois Capital Group, Inc (ICG), a private equity firm based in Nashville, Tenn. He is also Chairman/President/CEO of REIT Investment Group, LLC (RIG), a portfolio company of ICG which McGugin founded in 2006. McGugin has served on numerous company, school, and non-profit boards including Catholic Charities, Dismas House, and Montgomery Bell Academy Alumni Board. Prior to founding RIG/ICG, McGugin was previously with Covenant Capital Group, a real estate private equity firm based in Nashville. He holds his Series 7, Series 24, Series 27, Series 63 and Series 79 licenses. In addition to his business career, McGugin is an active volunteer for tennis, currently serving as USTA Council Chair – Competitive Pathway and USTA Southern Vice President. McGugin also served as President of USTA-Tennessee (2016-2017) and has served on multiple USTA Tennessee, Southern, and National committees. In addition to his USTA service, from 2019-2021 McGugin served as a Board Member of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). McGugin graduated from Vanderbilt University (BA in 2000 and M.Ed in 2003) while playing four years on the varsity tennis team. He remains an active adult competitor having won multiple USTA gold balls over the past 10 years.
Emily S. Schaefer of the USTA Texas Section has been elected to serve her second term as a Director at Large on the USTA Board of Directors. Schaefer has been an active USTA volunteer for more than 20 years, serving at the local, section and national level in various capacities. She served as USTA Texas President, then Delegate, and continues to participate as part of the USTA Texas Management Committee. In September 2021, Schaefer was named Executive Director of the Houston Tennis Association (HTA), a large umbrella Community Tennis Association (CTA) serving the Houston area. Founded in 1952, HTA provides leagues, tournaments, outreach programs, and scholarships. From 1999-2021, Schaefer served as the Director of Tennis for the City of Houston Parks and Recreation Department, overseeing three municipal tennis centers and managing a large, diverse National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) chapter. Prior to assuming that position, Schaefer played and coached tennis at every level—junior, collegiate, professional, adult and senior. Once a nationally-ranked junior, Schaefer played four years at Princeton University where she earned a bachelor’s degree. After college, she began her career as a teaching professional at private tennis clubs and coached at Rice University, before moving to public parks 10 years later and is now the ED for HTA. Schaefer, an Eve Kraft USTA Community Service Award winner, earned the Gold Slam Award in 2008, when she teamed with her mother, Bambi Schuette, to capture all four USTA National Championships (clay, grass, hard and indoor) in Super Senior Mother-Daughter doubles. Schaefer’s other awards and accolades include the USPTA Industry Excellence Award, USTA Texas W.T. Caswell Service Award, and the establishment of the Emily Schaefer Sportsmanship Award (given annually to an outstanding girls’ 12 player in Texas).
Bobby Sharma of the USTA Eastern Section has been elected to serve his first two-year term as Director at Large on the USTA Board of Directors. Sharma is a private equity investor, and a sports, media, & entertainment industry leader, with a global track-record of accomplishment across finance, law, strategy, management, and operations. He is currently Chairman of Blue Devil Holdings, and Special Adviser to the renowned Sports & Entertainment Group at the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP. Sharma was previously a Partner at private equity firm GACP Sports, where he served as Vice Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of portfolio company Soccerex, the world’s largest organizer of European football industry conferences. Prior to that, he was Co-Founder & Managing Partner of esports industry-leading advisory firm Electronic Sports Group, and Senior Vice President, Global Head of Basketball & Strategic Initiatives at IMG, where Sharma led the growth of a range of businesses worldwide, including the management of global sports media rights, and the creation, development, and oversight of basketball, soccer, and cricket properties – from grassroots programs and academies, to national teams and professional leagues – with a focus on major emerging markets. Prior to that, Sharma was the Vice President & General Counsel of the NBA Development League for nearly a decade, helping create and operate the National Basketball Association’s first minor league. He also led the creation of the NBA’s first international league consulting business. Sharma also previously practiced law at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and served on the presidential campaign staff of the former U.S. Senator and Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Bradley. He is a graduate of Duke University, Duke Law School, and the Harvard Business School executive program on the Business of Entertainment, Media & Sports. Sharma was named one of the “25 Most Influential South Asian Executives in the Media & Entertainment Industry” by Korn Ferry in 2009, one of the “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business” by the Asian American Business Development Center in June 2014, and a “Sports & Entertainment Industry Power Player” by the Sports Business Journal in January 2021.
Elite Athletes
Liezel H. Huber of the USTA Middle States Section has been elected to serve her fourth term as an Elite Athlete on the USTA Board of Directors. During her first term, she was Board Liaison to the Professional Tennis Council. She is the chair of the USTA Athlete Advisory Council (AAC) and is serving a four-year term on the USOPC as the USTA’s Athlete Advisory Representative. During a 24-year career in professional tennis, Huber was the No. 1-ranked WTA doubles player for 199 weeks and the year-end No. 1 women’s doubles player three times. She won 53 WTA doubles titles, including three WTA Finals year-end championships, seven Grand Slam women’s doubles crowns (three at the US Open; two at Wimbledon, and one each at the Australian Open and Roland Garros) and two Grand Slam mixed doubles titles (one each at the US Open and Roland Garros). She competed for the South African Fed Cup (now Billie Jean King Cup) team between 1998 and 2003 and, after becoming a U.S. citizen in 2007, played for the U.S. Fed Cup team for six consecutive years, helping the United States to the finals in 2009 and 2010. She was a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 2008 and 2012. Huber, a member of the WTA Player Council from 2006 to 2014, announced her retirement from professional tennis and played her last match at the 2017 US Open. Huber is a PTR-certified professional and owner of Huber Tennis Ranch in the Houston area. She was the Tennis Director at the Club of Houston Oaks prior to moving to New York to become Executive Tennis Director at Cary Leeds Tennis Center for NYJTL. Huber is the Director of Racquets and Sports at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware.
Vania King of the USTA Southern California Section has been elected to serve a second term as an Elite Athlete on the USTA Board of Directors. She works as the Community Development Ambassador for WTA Charities, the philanthropic arm of the WTA whose mission involves helping to develop and manage community outreach programs and campaigns, facilitating partner relationships, increasing player engagement, and educating members. During her professional career, King reached career highs of No. 3 in doubles and No. 50 in singles. She is a two- time Grand Slam doubles champion (US Open and Wimbledon 2010), and won one WTA singles title, was three times a singles finalist. King also won 15 WTA doubles titles. King is an eight-time member of the U.S. Fed Cup Team. She served as a representative on the WTA Player Council from 2010-2012, representing the 21-plus ranking group. She is a WTBA Pension Committee Representative, from 2010 to present, which oversees the pension plans of all former and current WTA players.
Megan Moulton-Levy of the USTA Mid-Atlantic Section has been elected to serve a second term as an Elite Athlete on the USTA Board of Directors. She previously served one term on the National Junior Competition Committee. After graduating from the College of William & Mary, where she holds the record for the most combined wins in singles and doubles, Moulton-Levy competed on the WTA Tour from 2008-2016. She captured the WTA Monterrey doubles championship in 2014 in addition to winning 10 ITF doubles titles. She also attained a career-high world singles ranking of No. 237 and earned one ITF singles title. Prior to turning professional, Moulton-Levy earned a B.A. in Sociology from William & Mary in 2007 and completed a stellar collegiate career, rising to the No. 1 NCAA ranking in doubles and No. 7 in singles. The six-time All-American reached the semifinal round of the 2006 NCAA Singles Championship and the final round of the 2007 NCAA Doubles Championship. Moulton-Levy also was a two-time recipient of the National ITA/Arthur Ashe, Jr. Award for Leadership and Sportsmanship. Moulton-Levy has been the General Manager of Player Development at Junior Tennis Champion Center in College Park, Maryland since September 2019. She joined JTCC in January 2016 as a Senior Coach, and assumed the Director of Mentoring role in January 2018 before being promoted to her current role.
Immediate Past President
Michael J. McNulty III of the USTA Southern Section will serve as Immediate Past President on the USTA Board of Directors. McNulty is currently completing his two-year term as President, and fourth consecutive two-year term on the USTA Board of Directors. He also is serving his second consecutive term on the Strategic and Creative Planning Committee, where he currently serves as Chair. He serves as Board Liaison to the Adult Tennis Leadership Council and is also a member of the Budget Committee, International Tennis Committee, and the ITF Constitution Committee. He served two consecutive terms on the Nominating Committee and the Constitution and Rules Committee, where he served as Vice Chair. McNulty has a long history of volunteerism at the Section and District levels. He served as President, First Vice President, Vice President and member of the Board of Directors of the USTA Southern, and as USTA Southern’s Delegate to the USTA. He served three consecutive terms as Chair of the Constitution and Rules Committee, Chair of the Nominating Committee and Board Liaison to multiple Committees. He is former Tournament Director of the BB&T Atlanta Open. He is a recipient of the USTA Southern Jacobs Bowl, the highest volunteer service award given by USTA Southern. He is a member of the USTA Southern Tennis Hall of Fame. McNulty was a longtime USTA Louisiana volunteer where he served as President. He is a member of the Louisiana Tennis Hall of Fame and recipient of the President’s Award. McNulty was a partner with the law firm of Plauche Smith & Nieset, LLC, and has recently taken Of Counsel status.
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The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking seven summer WTA and ATP World Tour tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 120 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
