A familiar face has been named Curling Canada’s new Chief Executive Officer, it was announced today.
Nolan Thiessen, a three-time Brier and former world men’s curling champion, who has been a member of the Curling Canada senior management team for the past four years, will take the position following a thorough and exhaustive search and interview process conducted by an external agency, SRI, alongside Curling Canada’s Board of Governors CEO hiring committee.
He replaces Katherine Henderson, who departed Curling Canada in August to take the position of CEO and president at Hockey Canada.
Thiessen was a member of Brier-winning teams in 2010, 2014 and 2015, and was a member of Canada’s world championship gold-medal team in 2010.
He retired as a competitive curler following the 2015-16 season, and took on duties as an Athlete Liaison for Curling Canada in 2016 and also served as a consultant. He was formally hired two years later, and most recently served as the Executive Director, Marketing and Fan Experience.
Thiessen also has been active internationally, serving on the World Curling Federation’s Athlete Commission for more than five years (and chairing the commission for three of those years), and then moving onto the WCF’s Competition and Rules Commission a year ago.