Chief of Staff and Communications Executive
I’m Bryan Wendell, Chief of Staff and Director of Communications at USA Fencing. For 18 years I have helped national organizations decide what matters, get it delivered, and explain it well: an Olympic sport, a 180-year-old university and the Boy Scouts of America.
Stories placed in The New York Times · The Wall Street Journal · The Washington Post · Bloomberg · The Today Show · Fortune · Forbes · Time · Vogue · Business of Fashion · Sports Business Journal · CNBC · AP · CNN · CBS · NPR · Slate · Sports Illustrated · ESPN
The work runs on two tracks that feed each other. One makes sure the organization’s priorities actually get delivered. The other makes sure the right people understand what it did.
Turning a multi-year plan into sequenced initiatives with named owners, milestones and a KPI scorecard the Board reads every month.
The leadership operating cadence, agendas, structured pre-reads and the decision log that turns agreement into assignment.
The initiatives that sit outside any one department, moved through influence across a matrixed organization rather than authority.
Budgeting and forecasting alongside the CEO and Finance, scenario analyses and business cases, and two agency RFP cycles run with General Counsel.
Building reporter relationships from scratch and finding the story a journalist actually wants to tell.
Speeches, op-eds, newsletters and quotes written in a leader’s voice, faithfully enough that readers feel they know the person.
High-stakes communications developed alongside General Counsel, including preparation for congressional testimony before a U.S. House subcommittee.
Blogs, magazines, podcasts and video. I have built two newsrooms from scratch, and I still write every week.
Launch communications for 25+ corporate partners including Cloudflare, Macron and Dwight Global Online, plus a creator program reaching more than 200 million combined followers.
The operating rhythm that keeps a distributed staff and 750+ member clubs informed and aligned.
Direct reports, freelancers, contractors and our PR agency of record, hired, coached and pointed at the same story.
The AI workflows my team uses daily, three internal web applications I built myself, and the answer engine optimization work shaping how USA Fencing appears in AI-generated answers.
Features, profiles and projects from three chapters of my career. The PDFs open right here on the site.
Jack Schmidt ’72 spent decades sounding the alarm about the Colorado River. Now 40 million people are listening. A long-form story about water, science and being right too early.
The Chang family brought grandparents, parents and kids to the same Summer Nationals. A story about what it looks like when a sport becomes a family tradition.
A conversation with the former Secretary of Defense, and Eagle Scout, about leadership, service and what Scouting taught him.
The director of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet was also an Eagle Scout. One of these facts surprised everyone I told.
Sophia Bardunias ’28 stood over a long, curling putt with a championship on the line. A profile of the golfer who capped a historic season for Bucknell women’s golf.
The BSA’s official news blog, built from zero to 5.4 million annual page views across 3,286 articles. It continued as Aaron on Scouting and lives on today as On Scouting, proof that the model worked.
USA Fencing’s official podcast: athlete stories, Olympic previews and a sport explained one episode at a time.
A monthly newsletter written in our CEO’s voice, reaching 70,000+ readers in all 50 states. Readers tell him they feel like they know him, which means it’s working.
Bucknell’s biweekly podcast, translating the admissions process for students and families, launched during the years the university set application records.
Bigger than a byline: initiatives I’ve led from idea to outcome.
Built the machinery a plan needs to survive contact with five departments: sequenced initiatives with named owners, a decision log, a public progress site for members and the KPI scorecard the Board reads monthly. Three goals landed ahead of schedule, including a 700-club target set for 2028.
A New York City media event that drew 60+ journalists, months of proactive pitching and on-site press operations in Paris. U.S. fencing climbed from 12th to 6th in Olympic social prevalence.
Led the full rebuild of the organization’s website, architecture, content and voice, growing traffic 42%.
Built a creator and influencer program from scratch, spanning Olympic medalists, actors and everyday athletes, introducing fencing to audiences traditional media can’t reach.
Created the narrative platform our CEO is known for: a monthly newsletter to 70,000+ readers, op-eds, keynotes and preparation for every high-stakes interview, including congressional testimony.
I am Chief of Staff to the CEO of USA Fencing and its Director of Communications. The two jobs are less separate than they sound. One decides what the organization is going to do and makes sure it actually happens. The other makes sure the people who matter understand what it did.
The Chief of Staff half means the leadership team’s operating cadence, the decision log, the board materials and the KPI scorecard our Board reads every month. It means turning the 2024-28 strategic plan into sequenced initiatives with named owners and dates, then being the person who notices in month four that something is slipping. Almost none of it runs on authority. The plan moves through five departments and not one of them reports to me, so the work gets done by being useful to functional leaders rather than by chasing them.
The communications half is the function I built from scratch beginning in 2022. National media relations, crisis and issues work developed alongside our General Counsel, the CEO’s public voice, and the awards submissions I write myself, which is how a three-person team ended up winning at PRWeek and SportsTravel. This season the sport reached 56.6 million impressions, grew website traffic 47 percent, held a 50 percent email open rate, and broke into Variety, Sportico and SportsTravel for the first time.
Complicated subjects are the ones I like most. Making something clear without making it wrong is a single skill, and I learned it writing for readers who ranged from 8-year-olds to people with doctorates in the subject. It is the same skill whether the audience is a reporter on deadline, a board that needs to decide something, or a member who just wants to know what changed.
That work now includes AI. I build the workflows my team uses daily, I have built three internal web applications with AI development tools, and I lead our answer engine optimization work, deciding how we show up when people stop searching and start asking.
I am a trained journalist, with an M.A. from the University of Missouri and a B.A. from Texas Tech University, based just outside New York City. Thanks for reading, and please reach out if you have questions.
“Prolific. That’s what Bryan is. I’ve never known someone to connect with audiences at the frequency and with the quality Bryan can… Bryan builds camaraderie, trust and buy-in like a seasoned (well-liked) CEO.”
Gina Circelli Mulcahy, award-winning writer and producer, via LinkedIn
