From edited press releases
The National Thoroughbred Racing Association has hired a senior vice president of NTRA Purchasing and a chief financial officer.
Terry McElfresh, who previously worked for OfficeMax as a national accounts manager, will serve as senior vice president of NTRA Purchasing. He succeeds NTRA Purchasing president Joe Morris, who is leaving the NTRA to become publisher of Thoroughbred Times.
McElfresh raises horses at a farm outside of Louisville, Ky., where he resides.
“Terry is a proven leader with a long history of sales success,” NTRA president and chief executive officer Alex Waldrop said. “Terry was also instrumental in OfficeMax’s relationship with NTRA Purchasing, which makes him a particularly ideal individual to head up NTRA Purchasing’s top-notch staff and continue the department’s trend of record, year-over-year sales results.”
“I have seen firsthand, through my experiences with Boise Cascade and then OfficeMax, how NTRA Purchasing delivers substantial cost savings to its members on products and services from nationally known companies,” McElfresh said. “I am excited by this opportunity, and I look forward to further growing the relationships between the NTRA and the many NTRA Purchasing Partners who do so much to support horse racing.”
Vicki Baumgardner, like Waldrop a former official with Churchill Downs Inc., is the NTRA’s new chief financial officer. Baumgardner most recently was CFO for the Louisville law firm Wyant, Tarrant & Combs, and previously worked for 16 years at CDI, where she served from 1989-2005 as vice president of finance.
“I have had the pleasure of working with Vicki at Wyant, Tarrant & Combs and at Churchill Downs, and she distinguished herself at both places as a highly successful financial professional with a proven track record of business analysis and budgetary skills,” Waldrop said. “With Vicki’s hiring, and that of Terry McElfresh, the NTRA has now filled two key, senior-level positions that will greatly bolster and solidify our organization and leave us well positioned for the many challenges and initiatives that lay ahead.”
“I’m excited about the prospect of joining the NTRA,” Baumgardner said. “I’ve worked with the organization on a number of projects during my career and l look forward to becoming a member of the team and to combining my professional strengths with one of my favorite passions--horses.”