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Professional Referee Organization

Founded	November 2012 (2012-11)
Headquarters	420 Fifth Avenue 7th Floor New York, NY 10018
Area served	United States and Canada
Key people	Nick Primavera (COO) Mark Geiger (general manager)
Website	www.proreferees.com

Professional Referee Organization (PRO) is the organization responsible for managing the referee and assistant referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada, working alongside the United States Soccer Federation, Major League Soccer, the Canadian Soccer Association, the United Soccer League, the National Women's Soccer League, MLS Next Pro, and the U.S. Open Cup.

The organization's targets are to increase the quality of officiating in U.S. and Canadian professional leagues, develop more professional-quality officials at a younger age, and produce officials who will represent the United States and Canada in FIFA competitions.

The PRO senior match officials primarily referee in Major League Soccer. The PRO2 officials primarily referee in the USL, NWSL, and MLS Next Pro.

History

The U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer joined forces in 2012 to create the Professional Referee Organization and the aims for PRO is to develop a higher standard of officiating at a younger age and to produce referees who can represent the United States and Canada in FIFA competitions.

Then U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati said, "We've always understood that the development of referees is an important aspect to the growth of the game in the United States. PRO is another step toward the improvement and professionalization of our top referees. With the additional resources and funding provided by the formation of PRO, we will continue to build upon the progress we've already made."

The referees employed by PRO are represented by the PSRA. PRO and the PSRA have negotiated several collective bargaining agreements. In 2014, PRO used replacement officials for the first two weekends of the MLS season. During the 2024 MLS referee lockout, replacement officials were used for the first six matchdays.

Staff

Executive Staff and Senior Match Officials Dept

Name	Position
Mark Geiger	General Manager
Nick Primavera	Chief Operating Officer
Joe Fletcher	Chief Refereeing Officer
Alan Kelly	Director of Senior Match Officials
Frank Anderson	Manager of Senior Assistant Referees
Greg Barkey	Manager of Video Review

PRO2 Match Officials Dept

Name	Position
Alex Prus	Director of PRO2 Match Officials
Erich Simmons	Director of PRO2 Referees
Ian Anderson	Director of PRO2 Assistant Referees
Dave Gantar	Manager of PRO2 Video Review
Melissa Borjas	Manager of NWSL officials
Kate Jacewicz	PRO2 Referee Coach
Mark Kadlecik	PRO2 Referee Coach
Abbey Okulaja	PRO2 Referee Coach
Robert Sibiga	PRO2 Referee Coach
Sorin Stoica	PRO2 Referee Coach
Chantel Boundreau	PRO2 Assistant Referee Coach
Steve Montanino	PRO2 Technical Coordinator
Alan Black	Director of Assessment
Chris Rivett	Director of Communication and External Relations

PRO Sports Performance

Name	Position
Tom Beckvermit	Director of Sports Performance
Lisa Stalans	Head of Sports Medicine
John Westbrooks	Head Sports Performance Coach
Heather Betancourt	Sports Performance Coach
Frank Barone	Sports Performance Coach

Administrative Staff

Name	Position
John Loder	Director of Finance and Accounting
Sarah Bettison	Manager of Human Resources and Planning
Dax Almazan	Manager of Payroll and Accounting
Mariam Blount	Human Resources Coordinator
Stephen Mcloughlin	Senior Staff Accountant
Brian Carney	Accounting Coordinator
Wynnifred Sanders	Human Resources Generalist

Operations Dept

Name	Position
Nicole Ward	Director of Operations
Drayden Farci	Manager of Operations
Amy Edwards	Manager of Tactical and Video Analysis
Leisha Alcia	Operations Coordinator
Paolo Mondini	Operations Coordinator
Cheryl Malik	Manager of Travel
Warren Rosario	Manager of Technology
Luke Berry	Tactical and Video Analyst

Major League Soccer awards

For a list of recipients before PRO's creation in 2012, see MLS Referee of the Year Award.

Season	Referee	Assistant Referee
2012	Silviu Petrescu	Ian Anderson
2013	Hilario Grajeda	Kermit Quisenberry
2014	Mark Geiger	Paul Scott
2015	Alan Kelly	Corey Parker
2016		Frank Anderson
2017	Allen Chapman	Corey Parker
2018	Alan Kelly	Joe Fletcher
2019	Allen Chapman	Brian Dunn
2020	Ismail Elfath	Kathryn Nesbitt
2021	/ Robert Sibiga	Cory Richardson
2022	Ismail Elfath	Corey Rockwell
2023	Victor Rivas	Ian McKay
2024	Drew Fischer	Kyle Atkins
2025		Cory Richardson

USL Championship awards

Season	Referee	Assistant Referee
2019	Guido Gonzales Jr.	Ian McKay
2020	Elton Garcia	Diego Blas
2021	Matt Thompson	Mike Nickerson
2022	Mark Allatin	Kali Smith
2023	Calin Radosav	Christian Clerc
2024	Abdoe Ndiaye	Matthew Rodman
2025	Matthew Corrigan	Rhett Hammil

Roster

Ahead of the 2026 Major League Soccer season, these match officials were listed on the PRO rosters.

Referees

Source:

• Elijio Arreguin
• Malik Badawi
• Fotis Bazakos
• Serhiy Boyko
• Allen Chapman
• / Alexis Da Silva
• / Marcos DeOliveira
• / Sergii Demianchuk
• Joe Dickerson
• Filip Dujic
• Ismail Elfath
• Ricardo Fierro
• Drew Fischer
• Tim Ford
• Jon Freemon
• Guido Gonzales, Jr
• Lorenzo Hernandez
• Pierre-Luc Lauzière
• Jair Marrufo
• Rosendo Mendoza
• Ricardo Montero
• Ismir Pekmic
• Chris Penso
• Tori Penso
• Victor Rivas
• Nima Saghafi
• / Lukasz Szpala
• Ramy Touchan
• Rubiel Vazquez
• Armando Villarreal

Assistant referees

Source:

• Lyes Arfa
• Kyle Atkins
• Nick Balcer
• Micheal Barwegen
• Andrew Bigelow
• Cameron Blanchard
• Diego Blas
• Logan Brown
• Jose da Silva
• Brian Dunn
• Chris Elliott
• Gianni Facchini
• Adam Garner
• Ryan Graves
• Jeffrey Greeson
• Rhett Hammil
• Jeremy Hanson
• Walt Heatherly
• Justin Howard
• Eduardo Jeff
• Jeremy Kieso
• Kevin Klinger
• Gérard-Kader Lebuis
• Kevin Lock
• Felisha Mariscal
• Brooke Mayo
• Stephen McGonagle
• Ian McKay
• Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho
• Meghan Mullen
• Matt Nelson
• Kathryn Nesbitt
• Mike Nickerson
• Corey Parker
• Ben Pilgrim
• Brian Poeschel
• Cory Richardson
• Corey Rockwell
• Kali Smith
• Jeffrey Swartzel
• Stefan Tanaka-Freundt
• Nick Uranga
• Chris Wattam
• Eric Weisbrod
• Jason White
• Adam Wienckowski
• Tyler Wyrostek

Video assistant referees

Source:

• David Barrie
• Carol Anne Chenard
• Greg Dopka
• Geoff Gamble
• Jorge Gonzalez
• Edvin Jurisevic
• Younes Marrakchi
• Michael Radchuk
• Daniel Radford
• José Carlos Rivero
• Kevin Stott
• Shawn Tehini
• Kevin Terry Jr.

Assistant video assistant referees

Source:

• Claudiu Badea
• Tom Felice
• Jonathan Johnson
• Mike Kampmeinert
• John Krill
• Craig Lowry
• Jeffrey Muschik
• Josh Patlak
• Robert Schaap
• Thomas Supple
• Fabio Tovar
• TJ Zablocki

International roster

As of January 2026, these PRO senior match officials' were listed on the international roster:

See also: List of FIFA international referees

Referees

• Joe Dickerson
• Filip Dujic
• Ismail Elfath
• Drew Fischer
• Jon Freemon
• Guido Gonzales Jr
• Pierre Luc Lauziere
• Rosendo Mendoza
• Tori Penso
• Victor Rivas
• Lucasz Szpala
• Rubiel Vazquez
• Armando Villarreal

Assistant Referees

• Lyes Arfa
• Kyle Atkins
• Michael Barwegen
• Cameron Blanchard
• Logan Brown
• Chris Elliot
• Jose Da Silva
• Ryan Graves
• Jeremy Kieso
• Felisha Mariscal
• Brooke Mayo
• Meghan Mullen
• Kathryn Nesbitt
• Corey Parker
• Corey Richardson
• Kali Smith
• Stefan Tanaka-Freudent
• Nick Urganda
• Chris Wattam

Video Match Officials

• Allen Chapman
• Tim Ford
• Edvin Jurisevic
• Chris Penso
• Jose Carlos Rivero

PRO2 Roster

As of January 2026, these PRO officials were listed on the PRO2 roster:

Referees

Source:

• Rodrigo Albuquerque
• Lauren Aldrich
• Luis Arroyo
• Nabil Bensalah
• Servando Berna
• Alex Billeter
• Alijo Calume
• Cristian Campo-Hernandez
• Edson Carvajal
• Danielle Chesky
• Matthew Corrigan
• Greg Dopka
• Marie Durr
• Joshua Encarnacion
• Gerald Flores
• Elton Garcia
• JC Griggs
• Amin Hadzic
• Muhammad Hassan
• Brad Jensen
• Muhammad Kaleia
• Drew Klemp
• Katja Koroleva
• John Matto
• Corbyn May
• Jaclyn Metz
• Ben Meyer
• Adorae Monroy
• Abdou Ndiaye
• Elvis Osmanovic
• Jamie Padilla
• Alyssa Pennington
• Iryna Petrunok
• Calin Radosav
• Carlos Rodriguez
• Laura Rodriguez
• Jeremy Scheer
• Natalie Simon
• Thomas Snyder
• Brandon Stevis
• Joe Surgan
• Shawn Tehini
• Matt Thompson
• Mark Verso
• Robert Vincze
• Anya Viogt
• Trevor Wiseman
• Atahan Yaya

Assistant referees

Source:

• Alexander Arita
• Art Arustamyan
• Colin Ashley
• Darren Bandy
• Seth Barton
• Melissa Beck
• Jake Brochu
• Ethan Buege
• Jessica Carnevale
• Laura Chambers Waliski
• Zeno Cho
• Clarence Clark
• Christian Clerc
• Adam Cook
• Eric Del Rosario
• Mateusz Dulski
• Tom Felice
• Fernando Fierro
• Justin Fillmore
• Chana Forstall
• Sarah Gaddes
• Jennifer Garner
• Sharon Gingrich
• Melissa Gonzalez
• Peter Hanson
• Austin Holt
• Kevin Huet
• Noah Kenyawani
• John Krill
• Eric Krueger
• Christian Little
• Jacob Little
• Brian Marshall
• Seth Martin
• Kendall McCarddell
• Zach McWhorter
• Alicia Messer
• Stephen Milhoan
• Ricardo Ocampo
• Kristin Patterson
• Salma Perez
• Ben Rigel
• Bruno Rizo
• Matthew Rodman
• Bennett Savage
• Chris Schurfranz
• Matthew Schwartz
• Matthew Seem
• Nicholas Seymour
• Amilcar Sicaju
• Cameron Siler
• Jeremy Smith
• Max Smith
• Rachel Smith
• Joe Suchoski
• Matt Trotter
• Tiffini Turpin
• Katarzyna Wasiak
• Seun Yinka-Kehinde

International appointments

PRO Officials at FIFA Men's World Cups

2014 World Cup Brazil	2018 World Cup Russia	2022 World Cup Qatar	2026 World Cup North America
Mark Geiger (Referee)	Mark Geiger (Referee)	Ismail Elfath (Referee)	Ismail Elfath (Referee)
Sean Hurd (AR)	Jair Marrufo (Referee)	Kyle Atkins (AR)	Tori Penso (Referee)
Joe Fletcher (AR)	Joe Fletcher (AR)	Corey Parker AR)	Drew Fischer (Referee)
Eric Boria (Support AR)	Frank Anderson (AR)	Kathryn Nesbitt (AR)	Kyle Atkins (AR)
	Corey Rockwell (AR)	Armando Villarreal (VMO)	Corey Parker (AR)
		Drew Fischer (VMO)	Kathryn Nesbitt (AR)
			Brooke Mayo (AR)
			Lyes Arfa (AR)
			Michael Barwegen (AR)
			Joe Dickerson (VMO)
			Armando Villarreal (VMO)

Three of PRO's FIFA World Cup Officials: Eric Boria, Mark Geiger, and Ismail Elfath.

In December 2018, Jair Marrufo as referee, Frank Anderson and Corey Rockwell as assistant referees, and Mark Geiger as an assistant video assistant referee, were selected to oversee the 2018 FIFA Club World Cup final.

At the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, several PRO officials were appointed to the final. Ismail Elfath served as the fourth official, Kathryn Nesbitt was the 5th official, Kyle Atkins was the offside VAR for the match, and Corey Parker was the standby VAR.

In August 2023, six PRO officials were appointed to the FIFA Women's World Cup final—three on-field and three video officials. Tori Penso was chosen to adjudicate the final, alongside assistant referees Brooke Mayo and Kathryn Nesbitt. Also chosen were Support VAR Armando Villarreal, Standby VAR Carol Anne Chenard, and Standby AVAR Drew Fischer.

At the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Ismail Elfath, Kyle Atkins, and Corey Parker took the field for the semifinal between Argentina and England. It was first time a PRO referee has taken charge of a semifinal at a men's World Cup.

See also

• List of MLS Cup Referees
• MLS Referee of the Year Award
• Professional Soccer Referees Association
• List of FIFA international referees

External links

• Official website