Board member: 1988-1997, 2006-present

Current term ends: 2028

Robert “Nob” Rauch has served as president of the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) from 1992 to 1994 and from 2011 to the present. He currently serves as a member of the boards of the International World Games Association (IWGA), the Association of IOC Recognised International Sports Federations (ARISF), and the International Sport for All Federation (FISpT). He is also an executive advisor to Allrise Sport and Entertainment, which manages football operations and a 34,000 seat stadium in Odesa, Ukraine.

 

He was an active Ultimate player from 1976 to 1994 and has been involved in positions of leadership in flying disc (frisbee) sports since 1987. He was the National Director/Executive Director of the Ultimate Players Association (now USA Ultimate) from 1988 to 1990 and was chairman of the Executive Committee in 1991-1994. As an athlete playing on Ultimate teams in Chicago, Boston, and New York, Rauch won six US National Championships and five World Championships, and he was elected to the Ultimate Hall of Fame in 2006. He also was a contributing author for the book “Ultimate: The First Five Decades” for Volume 1, published in December 2005, and Volume 2 in January 2019. 

 

A long-time New Yorker, Rauch retired in 2023 from a 43-year career in finance and investment banking specializing in debt restructurings in global emerging markets and is currently pursuing a PhD in Olympic Studies from the Deutsche Sport Hochschule Köln in Germany, where he recently completed a Masters of Science in Sportmanagement. He received his bachelor’s degree in political economy from Williams College and master’s degree in finance and international business from the Kellogg School of Northwestern University. Rauch is married to former Ultimate player Katie Shields Rauch and has three adult children.