Hall of Fame Announces Officers, New Board Member Martori-Wickey
The National Wrestling Hall of Fame Board of Governors announced on Thursday that it unanimously approved its officers for 2025-2026 at its meeting in Kansas City on October 29.
The officers are John Harris III as Chairman, Tom Keen as Vice Chairman, Audrey Pang as Secretary and Ed Gallegos as Treasurer.
“Wrestling has been a foundational part of my life, and it is a privilege to lead an organization so deeply connected to the sport's legacy and future,” said Harris. “I am grateful for the trust my peers have placed in me, and I look forward to collaborating with them as we approach the Hall of Fame’s milestone 50th Anniversary in 2026.”
The board also unanimously approved Kim Martori-Wickey as a new member and Stuart Carter and Nate Carr as lifetime Governor's Associates. Wayne Renneisen, Nancy Schultz Vitangeli, and Terry Shockley all returned to Governor's Associate status.
"Your National Wrestling Hall of Fame has been extraordinarily fortunate to benefit from exceptional leadership over the years, and we are thrilled to welcome our new officers who will carry forward this legacy,” said Lee Roy Smith, Executive Director, National Wrestling Hall of Fame. “We’re confident they will not only honor our traditions, but also advance strategic plans to secure a bright future for the Hall, ensuring it thrives for generations to come.
“We are deeply grateful to our outgoing officers for their remarkable contributions. Their dedication and guidance have propelled the Hall of Fame’s growth, helping us expand our reach and impact,” he added. “We extend our heartfelt thanks to those board members now becoming Governor’s Associates, and we know they will continue to champion our mission with unwavering support.”
The Board of Governors is responsible for preserving the history and tradition of the sport of wrestling by operation of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame Dan Gable Museum in Waterloo, Iowa. The Board is also responsible for overseeing the annual election of Distinguished Members, Outstanding American, Medal of Courage, Order of Merit, and Meritorious Official as well as the State Chapter program.
Harris (Petoskey, Michigan) replaces Tom Slowey (Torrance, California) as Chairman while Keen (Ann Arbor, Michigan) replaces Tom Talbot (Oakwood, Georgia) as Vice Chairman and Pang (Austin, Texas) replaces Harris. Harris joined the board in 2015 while Keen joined in 2019 and Pang joined in 2023. Harris was elected as secretary in 2018 and will conclude his term before becoming chairman in January. Gallegos (Stillwater, Oklahoma), who joined the board in 2007, was re-elected for a fifth term as Treasurer.
Keen is president of athletic equipment and apparel company Cliff Keen Athletic (CKA) and is the third generation of his family to serve on the board. CKA is a preferred apparel partner of the Hall of Fame and has been a dedicated supporter of the museum since it opened in 1976. Established in 1958, Cliff Keen Athletic is the largest manufacturer of wrestling apparel and protective equipment in the country. In addition to wrestling, CKA manufactures officiating uniforms and uniforms for several sports. Tom's father, Jim, was chairman from 2004-13 after serving as vice chairman from 2000-03 while his grandfather, Cliff, was a board member from 1982-1991. Jim received the Order of Merit award from the Hall of Fame in 2004 while Cliff was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Member in the Charter Class of 1976.
Slowey became a member of the board in 2009 and served as Secretary from 2014-2018, when he became Chairman, and as State Chapter Program Chairman from 2012-2018.
The Board is comprised of no less than 10, and not more than 30 members, who shall serve a maximum of six consecutive years in as many as three consecutive two-year terms. Three members of the Board shall represent United World Wrestling, USA Wrestling and the National Wrestling Coaches Association. Those individuals are nominated by their organizations and must be approved by the Board.
John Harris III, Chairman
John Harris III was a three-year starter on the wrestling team and had a career record of 59-20 from 1969-72 at Battle Creek Central High School in Battle Creek, Michigan. After receiving the Most Improved Wrestler award as a junior, he was co-captain as a senior and qualified for the state tournament while helping Battle Creek to a third place finish. He was a four-year starter with a career record of 117-19-5 from 1973-77 while helping Grand Valley State University to a 45-4 dual meet record. Harris was a three-time Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference champion and two-time NAIA All-American, reaching the national finals in 1976 and 1977 when he helped GVSU to a runner-up finish. He won multiple tournament and invitational titles, including twice winning the Michigan Open that included all Michigan colleges. He received the Suggitt Award, presented to the team member who was most “brutally aggressive while being uninhibited by adversity,” in 1976 and the Most Valuable Wrestler award as a senior in 1977. Harris qualified for the 1973 United States Junior World Final Trials and the 1976 Olympic Trials, and had a 5-1 record while wrestling on an NAIA Cultural Exchange team that competed in Japan and South Korea. He was inducted into the Grand Valley State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988, the second class inducted. A substantial $3 million gift by John, his wife, Diane, and the Harris family — Thomas Harris, his wife, Tammi, and John and Diane’s children, John and Meredith — helped the return of the men’s varsity program and the formation of a women’s varsity program that begins this year at Grand Valley State. Their generosity includes the new home of the Grand Valley wrestling program, the Harris Family Athletic Complex. The facility is named in honor of Jack and Dorcas Harris, parents of John and his brother, Thomas. The Harrises became key supporters of the Lakers' wrestling program when John joined the team in 1972. The Harrises also funded the start-up of the women's wrestling program and the exercise physiology lab at Lourdes University in Sylvania, Ohio. Overcoming a childhood learning disability, Harris became an outstanding student who received his bachelor’s degree from Grand Valley State University and his master’s degree in education from the University of Toledo. He served as an assistant wrestling coach at the University of Toledo in 1977-78 and was head coach of the St. Josephs of Sylvania (Ohio) grade school and junior high wrestling program from 1994-2006. Harris established the first wellness program at Owens-Illinois, Inc. during the late 1970s and early 1980s. He and his wife Diane then founded Harris HealthTrends, Inc. in 1987, an entrepreneurial corporation specializing in the prevention of disease and the reduction of health care costs. Harris HealthTrends grew to have over 400 employees, with clients in all 50 states, and in six other countries, on three different continents, and helped shape the prevention industry into what it is today. Harris merged Harris HealthTrends with four other companies to become Axia Health Management in 2005, and sold Axia to Healthways in 2006. Harris then formed another company, Performance pH, which utilized a variety of people-oriented strategies to help employers improve business performance. He sold that company in 2018. He has over 45 years of experience in the health management field in both the corporate and private sectors. Harris speaks internationally and has authored numerous publications on employee health while also having served on the boards of Lourdes University, The Health Enhancement Research Organization (HERO), Mercy Health Partners, the Bon Secours Mercy Health Foundation, Health Promotion Advocates, The Health Project, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and a number of for-profit businesses. He was also the founding chairman of the Ohio Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. The Harrises remain philanthropic in the wrestling, disease prevention, religious, and youth development sectors.
Tom Keen, Vice Chairman
Tom Keen received his bachelor’s degree in sports management and communication from the University of Michigan in 1994, and began his career with Cliff Keen Athletic in sales. Working alongside his father, and his brother, Jim Jr., Tom eventually became president of the company in 2012. In 2011, CKA received the prestigious “Manufacturer of the Year” award from Sporting Good’s largest industry buying group, Sports Inc. Keen is a board member of the United States Wrestling Foundation, the Michigan State Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, and is active in supporting and sponsoring many national and local tournaments, teams, athletes and other wrestling organizations around the country.
Audrey Pang, Secretary
Audrey Pang grew up in Toronto, Canada and was first introduced to wrestling by way of a chance encounter with a middle school gym class. She had fun, but promptly forgot all about it until her freshman year when her history teacher asked her to join the newly established boys and girls wrestling team. It was at that point that she began her lifelong love affair with wrestling. She had early success, placing second in the Ontario Provincial Championships, and decided that she wanted to continue wrestling at the collegiate level. Not fully understanding American sports landscape, when she was accepted into Princeton University, she emailed then coach Michael New of the men’s wrestling program and asked if she could join the wrestling team. A man ahead of his time, New said yes and for the next three years the Princeton Friends of Wrestling sponsored Pang’s training and competition on the freestyle women’s circuit. Pang placed fourth at the U.S. Open Championships and at the Women’s Collegiate Wrestling Association national tournament, and made a bid for the 2004 Olympics, the first Games to include women’s wrestling. In her senior year she became co-captain of the Princeton men’s team and 125-pound starter. To this day she is the only female to compete at an NCAA Division I men’s wrestling conference tournament. Post-graduation she returned to freestyle competition and competed for the New York Athletic Club through the 2008 Olympic Trials, after which she gracefully retired and promptly began dabbling in amateur Mixed Martial Arts and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. After graduating from Princeton with a bachelor’s degree in economics and certificates in finance and French, Pang took the lessons learned on the mat and brought them to her first career as an equity derivatives trader, trading in the pits of the American Stock Exchange and the Chicago Board Options Exchange for Jane Street Capital. Following a successful stint in public markets, Pang pivoted to the world of business and obtained her Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Booth. She then worked as a consultant, partnering with Fortune 500 executives across various industries while at Bain & Company, before ultimately discovering software, where she has worked ever since. Pang has been both an operator, leading Revenue Operations at Basis Technologies, as well as an investor and advisor, serving as a Value Creation Director at Vista Equity Partners and Operating Principal at Ionic Partners. Today, she focuses on investing in B2B software companies, providing operational expertise and capital along with a modern cloud-based approach to people and business. Pang firmly believes that wrestling opened up a world of opportunity that she otherwise would not have known and that the tools that she gained in the wrestling room are what allowed her to be successful across trading floors and boardrooms. She is committed to giving back to the sport that gave her so much, and in particular supports organizations that work to create more opportunities for women and girls to wrestle at all levels and experience the transformative power of wrestling. Pang actively works with Sisters on the Mat, Princeton Women’s Wrestling Committee and Division I Women’s Wrestling.
Ed Gallegos, Treasurer
Ed Gallegos was an NCAA Division II All-American at The Colorado School of Mines, graduating with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering. He founded Iron Sights Operating, Inc., an oil and gas company, in 1997, and sold it to Chesapeake in 2007. He then founded another oil and gas company, Territory Resources LLC, that he continues to operate today.
Kim Martori-Wickey, Board Member
Kim Martori-Wickey served as the executive director of the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club from 2000 until the organization ended operations in 2024. She received the Woman of the Year award from USA Wrestling in 2005, and served as the team leader for the U.S. women’s team leading up to the 2012 London Olympics. Martori-Wickey is a past member and chairwoman of USA Wrestling’s Diversity Committee. Kim’s father, Art Martori, founded Sunkist Kids, which produced more Olympic, World and U.S. national champions than any other elite wrestling club in the country, in 1976. He is a Distinguished Member of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame and is a past president and member of USA Wrestling’s Board of Directors. The Martori Family helped pave the way for Regional Training Centers and women’s wrestling in the Olympics. They are also steward of the Living the Dream Medal Fund, dedicated to providing financial support to Team USA wrestling medal winners. Kim and her family were one of the generous contributors to the Hall of Fame’s Women In Wrestling – A Legacy Inspiring Generations exhibit, which showcases women’s wrestling history.