Born and raised in North Carolina, Brandon was drawn to soccer at an early age and went on to play for division I Wofford College and as a member of the U.S. National Olympic Development Program. All the while, he was dabbling in board sports: skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding. “I grew up in a mountain town,” says Brandon. “My front door was a few hundred feet from a chairlift. All the older kids were snowboarding. And there was a mini skate ramp at the board shop. The board sports all go together. When we went to the beach in North Carolina we naturally learned to surf. Later, I lived 100 feet away from the ocean in Australia for 14 years.”

As soccer faded from his life, action sports took hold. All Brandon’s friends were pro athletes, and it wasn’t long before he found himself helping to build skateparks and wave pools and run events. A stint founding and overseeing his own ad agency—from brand strategy to creative campaigns—was his path into the business side. Soon he found himself as the CEO of USA Surfing and the Chairman of USA Skateboarding. Over four years, just as skate and surf were making their debuts on the Olympic stage, Brandon and his teams raised millions to push the sports forward. 

“I’m very good at networking,” Brandon says. “Every day my network grows—and performance is the key to growing that network. I’m only as good as my last gig, so I try to get one percent better every day. I’m always learning and improving.”  

Brandon is building an endowment for the Global Action Sports Foundation, which supports board sports athletes, cyclists, and climbers. The fund was established to grant athletes sustainable futures. “I want more characters from our sports culture to establish generational wealth. That’s a strong goal of mine. Not just for myself but for the entire action sports community. I think people in action sports are shy about talking about wealth for some reason. Let’s just say that other industries are not embarrassed to talk about wealth. I believe in our culture. Our DNA is strong enough. We can be authentic and well off.”