Male Pageantry Saved Him from a 'Dead End' at 21. Years Later, He's Now the CEO of Miss USA (Exclusive) Zoey LyttleOctober 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM 0 Phyllis Lane; Thom Brodeur Thom Brodeur.
- - Male Pageantry Saved Him from a 'Dead End' at 21. Years Later, He's Now the CEO of Miss USA (Exclusive)
Zoey LyttleOctober 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM
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Phyllis Lane; Thom Brodeur
Thom Brodeur. -
Thom Brodeur was named CEO of the Miss USA organization — which oversees both Miss USA and Miss Teen USA pageants — in September 2025
Over the years, Brodeur has made his name in the pageantry world as a former coach, judge and performance expert
He first entered a male pageant in the '90s, when he ran out of scholarship funds during his junior year of college
Thom Brodeur was introduced to the world of pageantry decades before he would become the CEO of the Miss USA organization.
In fact, his first introduction to the system happened when a friend from high school competed in Miss Teen USA, a competition he now owns along with its older sister pageant, Miss USA. It was the same year that Halle Berry won her state pageant in Ohio, he notes.
"I really quickly recognized how transformative [pageants] are," he tells PEOPLE. "You could sort of start to see how life would evolve and change for them."
Phyllis Lane
Thom Brodeur.
But it wasn't until his own foray onto the stage in 1991 that Brodeur personally experienced that effect. He was in college on a five-year graduation track, but midway through his junior year, Brodeur realized he had no scholarship money left to fund the rest of his education.
"There were no more grants available to me because I'd maxed out," he recalls years later. He was looking at a $10,500 bill with absolutely no way of paying it off and no room for any more student loans.
"I was kind of at a dead end in terms of what could I get done," says Brodeur. "Then, I was told by a family friend about a competition, a male scholarship competition."
It was a completely foreign concept to Brodeur at the time: a beauty pageant for men. However, with his options being so limited, he decided there was no reason he shouldn't give it a shot, and he entered at the state level.
That leap of faith secured him a solid $500, enough to pay for books and other necessary school supplies. It wasn't enough, but it ignited a fire in him that ultimately proved to be sufficient. He took his rookie pageantry skills all the way to nationals, secured himself a $10,000 scholarship and finished college.
"Back in the early '90s, I was like, 'Thank God for this,'" Brodeur notes. "Truly, I don't mean this in any sort of false humility kind of way, I don't know how I would've afforded school. I really don't know."
He felt the urge to turn his gratitude for pageants into something others could know as well. If that college education could afford him the professional success Brodeur sought for himself, he vowed to pay it forward.
"I personally had a very transformational and transformative moment in my own life from this industry," he shares. " I made a promise then that if I could do that at scale, I would. And here we are."
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Thom Brodeur with pageant contestants.
Brodeur spent 30 years building what he describes as a "remarkable career in consumer technology and e-commerce," working with companies like GoDaddy and Digital Air Strike and Power and Market Wire and others. Naturally, pageantry remained in his periphery, though. He watched his very best friend, the late Chelsi Smith, win a sequence of coveted titles: Miss Texas USA, Miss USA and Miss Universe.
"I was a bit even harder by this bug," he reflects, and that sentiment shows in his prolific resume as a pageant coach, judge and even director for organizations other than Miss USA. Years ago, he was the head of multiple states in a two-country organization for the Miss World pageant
"I've judged 180 local, state, national, and international pageants over the last 30 years. I've coached — I can't even tell you — thousands of women around the world who, regardless of the system, whether Miss USA, Miss Universe, America World, World America. You name it, I've coached for it," Brodeur says.
"I've learned really the insides and the outs and the upsides and the downsides of how the industry works," he adds.
thom brodeur
Thom Brodeur and a collaborator.
But it's his passion for the concept that skyrocketed Brodeur onto a path to the top. 2025 will be his first year as the head of Miss Teen USA and Miss USA, which will be held in Reno, Nev., on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24, respectively.
Upon officially acquiring the organization in September, Brodeur was quick to state his intentions to reform the pageants after several years of shakeups. The two sister competitions have come under scrutiny on many occasions in recent history, namely when the 2023 adult and junior winners, Miss USA Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA UmaSofia Srivastav, relinquished their titles.
At the time he was named owner, Brodeur told PEOPLE he was already working through a contract amendment process meant to entitle winners to more freedoms. That meant adjusting NDAs to give his contestants more freedom to speak on their experiences. He also planned to scrap a rule instated when Donald Trump owned Miss Universe and its subsidiaries, which awarded judging power to the leadership and management teams governing the pageants.
"I'm abolishing that," the pageant expert told PEOPLE last month. "If you tell [the judges] what you're trying to achieve, if you tell them what it means to have the right kind of brand ambassador for your brand and your organization, and you brief them sufficiently, you let them do their job and you let the final result be the one that they give you."
Even after so much time helming pageants and helping contestants, Brodeur has never lost his sense of appreciation for the system that gave him everything when he felt like there was nothing left.
"I think what's really important, and one of the things I'm really grateful to have this opportunity to do, is to bring all of that business experience and finally marry it [with pageants]," he says.
His vision for Miss USA — which will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year — is for it to become an ever-changing world that continues to open its doors to anyone and offer the world to those who seek it.
"I think the pageant industry really has to evolve in order for it to thrive going into the future," he tells PEOPLE. "I want to be a leader for this organization that sees to it that she thrives for 75 years after I'm gone."
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