Sam Wolgemuth

Sam Wolgemuth is an executive coach and consultant in board effectiveness for The Leets Consortium, headquartered in Newport Beach, California. 

Sam is an experienced corporate leader who has spent most of his career in media businesses. Until 2002 he was president and CEO of Freedom Communications, the $800 million privately owned Irvine–based publisher of the Orange County Register. He joined Freedom in 1995 as President of their magazine division. Before Freedom, Sam led Simon & Schuster’s $500 million Business Technical and Professional Group, a part of Paramount Communications.

Prior to Paramount, Sam headed the U.S. operations of Reed Travel Group, then the largest global travel trade publisher. He joined the business when it was part of News Corporation and was instrumental in its sale to Reed International, now Reed Elsevier. Before that, he spent 15 years at McGraw-Hill, most of it with Business Week.

He chairs the boards of Youth For Christ International and World Relief, and is on the boards of St. Margaret’s Episcopal School and ECCU, which with $3.5 billion in assets under management is the nation’s largest church lender.

Sam holds a BA in Philosophy from Taylor University, with continuing studies at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, Stanford’s Graduate School of Business and Harvard Business School.