Michael J. “Mike” Tanner, 42, an experienced racing industry executive, has been hired as the new executive vice president of the U.S. Trotting Association (USTA).
The recommendation to hire was made by a search committee, directed by Russell Williams, the vice chairman of the board of the USTA. The committee’s recommendation was affirmed by a teleconference vote of the Association’s full Board of Directors, conducted on Sunday morning, October 12.
Tanner becomes the ninth -- and youngest -- to fill the post of executive vice president, and will take charge of USTA headquarters shortly.
Tanner has served in a number of positions in both the Standardbred and Thoroughbred industries. He began his racing career in 1992, as a publicist at Ladbroke’s Detroit Race Course, but most recently, he was director of racing operations at Harrah’s Chester Casino and Racetrack, a position he took in 2005. During his tenure at the track he oversaw all racing initiatives and operations at the highly successful Chester, Pa. facility.
Prior to that, he served in a variety of positions at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., from 1993-2005, including as director of marketing, media, and simulcasting, as assistant to the president, and as director of communications. In addition, he has worked on special assignments at various Magna Entertainment Corp. holdings, and worked for the Breeders’ Cup, from 2001 through 2003. In 2002, Tanner was a member of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association Technology Group’s Communications Task Force.
He is a native of south New Jersey, and was first introduced to racing by making trips to Liberty Bell Park in the mid-1970s, and he also spent time as a groom and Thoroughbred hot walker at Philadelphia Park and Garden State Park.
Tanner was a 1988 graduate of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and completed graduate studies at Bowling Green State University, from 1989-1991, where he studied clinical psychology.
(USTA)