Pat Kelleher took over as the executive director of USA Hockey and The USA Hockey Foundation on June 10, 2017, and has led significant advancements on multiple fronts, including player safety, diversity and inclusion, information technology, and fundraising.

Under his leadership, USA Hockey is recognized as one of the most influential and innovative organizations in amateur sports and has reached record heights in participation. The Hockey News lists the Belmont, Mass., native 16th in its latest rankings of the Top 100 People of Power and Influence in the sport.

Kelleher helped start a new department at USA Hockey in 2008 focused on increasing participation across the country, particularly at the entry level. As assistant executive director for membership development, he established and led implementation of several new initiatives that resulted in increased retention and also advanced the number of players at the 8U level by some 20% in the nine seasons.

In 2011, Kelleher took on added responsibilities overseeing The USA Hockey Foundation and championed efforts that resulted in donations to the Foundation’s Circle of Champions increasing five-fold over a five-year span. He also established a Trustee program to more actively engage high net-worth donors in supporting USA Hockey’s mission, in addition to creating the “It Starts With A Stick” campaign to connect USA Hockey’s membership to the Foundation’s philanthropic mission through raising funds to provide 12,000 hockey sticks to new participants each year.

Prior to coming to USA Hockey, Kelleher was recruited to help launch Serving the American Rinks (STAR) in April 2000 and served as its chief operating office through June 2008. A joint initiative of USA Hockey and U.S. Figure Skating and housed at USA Hockey’s national headquarters in Colorado Springs, STAR (now called United States Ice Rink Association) is a non-profit membership organization focused on advancing the ice rink industry through world-class education and training programs.

Kelleher has been involved in hockey during his entire professional career, including serving as the director of hockey for the Wilmette (Ill.) Hockey Association from 1998-2000 and as director of hockey for the Twin Rinks Ice Pavillion in Buffalo Grove, Ill., in 1997-98.

He also spent time as the hockey director at the Ice Centre of San Jose from 1994-96 and following graduation from Brown University was an assistant hockey coach at the University of Massachusetts-Boston for one season (1993-94).

Kelleher, a USA Hockey Level 5 certified coach, has been a youth hockey coach for most of the last 25 seasons, including with the Colorado Springs Amateur Hockey Association. He served on the IIHF Facilities Committee from 2002-2010 and was also a member of the board of directors of the OneGoal Association from 2006-12.

A 1992 graduate from Brown University where he was a four-year member of the Bears men’s ice hockey program, Kelleher earned a bachelor of arts degree in business economics and has also received both the Olympic Sport Leadership Certification and Non-Profit Finance Certification from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Kelleher is the oldest of Dan and Maura Kelleher’s five sons, all who played college hockey. His late father coached 8U hockey in Belmont, Mass., for 40 years and in 2001 received the prestigious Wm. Thayer Tutt Award, USA Hockey’s highest volunteer honor.

Kelleher, who serves on the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee and in Oct. 2020 was elected to a four-year term as chair of the National Governing Bodies Council, resides in Colorado Springs, Colo. He and his wife Allyson, have two daughters, Abbey and Darby, and a son, Matty.