Erik Moses, Fiesta Sports Foundation CEO and Sports Industry Trailblazer, Named to the USA Fencing Board of Directors

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Erik Moses, a former fencing parent of two sons, has spent more than two decades turning sports properties into experiences more than the games they host. He reopened a NASCAR track that had sat dormant for nearly a decade. He helped bring Major League Baseball back to Washington. He founded a professional football team and a college football bowl game from nothing. Along the way he has been an attorney, an economic development official and a chief executive three times over.

Moses has been named an independent director of the USA Fencing Board of Directors following a vote by the current Board on June 27, 2026, during Summer Nationals in Portland, Oregon. His term begins Sept. 1, 2026. He was selected alongside Skip Gilbert, the former USA Triathlon and U.S. Youth Soccer CEO, whose appointment as an independent director takes effect the same day.

Independent directors occupy a distinct seat at the table. Unlike athletes, coaches, parents, club owners, referees or at-large directors, who are elected from within the fencing community, independent directors have no other affiliation with USA Fencing. That separation is the point. Under the governance standards that apply to every national governing body, independent directors provide outside expertise, financial oversight and a perspective unclouded by the internal politics that any membership organization can generate. They ask the questions nobody inside the sport thinks to ask.

“I’m equally honored and excited to join the USA Fencing Board of Directors at this critical time, to help propel the sport from the youth level through Olympic medals and maximize the spotlight we have leading into, during and following the Olympic Games in Los Angeles,” said Moses. “Fencing combines athleticism, strategy and elegance, while harnessing aggression to succeed. Having seen the personal development my sons experienced during their time in the sport, I want to help make fencing more visible and accessible for young people who might not otherwise be introduced to the sport.”

Moses has served since December 2022 as executive director and chief executive officer of the Fiesta Sports Foundation, the Arizona nonprofit organization behind the Vrbo Fiesta Bowl and the Cactus Bowl. Under his leadership, the Foundation underwent an organizational rebrand, secured the Fiesta Bowl’s place within the expanded College Football Playoff, created the first-ever national college women’s flag football event for Division 1 universities and initiated a football engagement department that connects the Foundation to youth and scholastic tackle and flag football across the state. The organization’s mission is to generate economic impact and distribute charitable resources throughout Arizona in support of youth, sports and educational initiatives through sporting events, hospitality and community programming.

Before moving to Arizona, Moses served as president and general manager of Nashville Superspeedway, making him the first Black person to hold that title at any NASCAR track. He led the effort to reopen and revitalize the facility, which had been dormant for nearly 10 years. The sold-out inaugural Ally 400 on Father's Day 2021 was the track's first NASCAR Cup Series race, the first Cup Series race in the Nashville market since 1984 and NASCAR's first full grandstand sellout since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moses spent more than 12 years leading three sports and entertainment organizations in Washington. As CEO of the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission, he oversaw the founding of the Military Bowl and helped create the AT&T Nation's Football Classic, a showcase for historically Black colleges and universities. He was influential in the recruitment of Major League Baseball back to the nation's capital and in the construction of Nationals Park. As senior vice president of Events DC, he managed venues including RFK Stadium, CareFirst Arena and the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, building partnerships with national brands and revamping a community grants program. He closed out his time in Washington as founding president of the DC Defenders, the XFL franchise that quickly became the league's standard bearer in gameday experience, ticket sales, corporate partnerships and community engagement.

Earlier in his career, Moses was the first director of the District of Columbia's Department of Small and Local Business Development, a director of business development and senior legal counsel at AOL, and an attorney at Dow Lohnes PLLC and Fisch Sigler LLP. He also taught in the Sports Industry Management Program at Georgetown University's School of Continuing Studies.

His nonprofit service is extensive. Moses is a national trustee for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America - Pacific Region and serves on the boards of the McLendon Foundation, Teach for America Phoenix, Coca-Cola Bowl Season, Experience Scottsdale, Cumberland University and the DC Jazz Festival.

Moses holds a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a law degree from Duke University School of Law. He holds an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from LeMoyne-Owen College and is a member of the bar in Maryland and the District of Columbia. A native of Somerset, New Jersey, he is the father of two sons who both fenced in their youth.

Phil Andrews, CEO of USA Fencing, says Moses brings a rare combination of experience to the Board.

"Erik Moses has built things that didn't exist and rebuilt things everyone had written off," Andrews says. "That's a useful instinct for a sport with as much untapped potential as ours. Add his legal background, his governance experience and the fact that he's watched his own sons compete on the strip, and you have exactly the kind of independent voice this Board needs."