Longtime pageant coach says he’s taking over Miss USA after CEO Laylah Rose’s controversial two-year reign

Longtime pageant coach and judge Thom Brodeur announced Thursday on Instagram that he is acquiring the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA brands and referred to himself as the organization’s chairman, president, and CEO.

“With a 10-year exclusive license, a powerhouse team, and a clear vision, I’m ready to modernize, revitalize, and reignite two of the most iconic brands in American pageantry,” Brodeur’s caption reads. “History is being made — and I’m inviting you to be part of shaping it.”

Brodeur’s representative confirmed the news to Business Insider. Rose and the Miss Universe organization did not respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.

Rose’s tenure leading the Miss USA brand has been controversial. Miss USA 2023 Noelia Voigt and Miss Teen USA 2023 UmaSofia Srivastava both relinquished their titles in the middle of their reigns, marking the first time a queen had given up her crown in the pageant’s 72-year history.

The pageant queens couldn’t speak out due to strict nondisclosure agreements, but their mothers Jackeline Voigt and Barbara Srivastava told Business Insider at the time that Rose had put their daughters through “eight months of torture and abuse.”

On Thursday, Noelia Voigt told Business Insider that she’s excited for the future of pageants now that Brodeur will be leading Miss USA.

“I genuinely feel like going on my social media right now and telling every girl that has been afraid to compete in the USA system since I resigned to please go ahead and sign up now,” Voight said. “Because I know things are going to be different. There’s a new day on the horizon.”

Voigt’s mother Jackeline said September 4, 2025 will be remembered as a “national holiday” for the pageant community.

“Miss USA was in ICU, it was dying,” she said. “Thom’s going to do an amazing job, and he’s going to make it bigger than ever.”

A struggling icon

Brodeur will become the third new Miss USA president in the last five years. Crystle Stewart, who became president in 2020, parted ways with Miss USA in August 2023. Stewart had been suspended by the Miss Universe Organization, which oversees Miss USA and Miss Teen USA, in October 2022 after dozens of Miss USA 2022 contestants claimed the pageant had been rigged in favor of R’Bonney Gabriel, who went on to win Miss Universe in January 2023.

That same month, it was revealed that Stewart’s husband, Max Sebrechts, had stepped down as vice president of Miss USA after multiple contestants from the 2021 pageant said he had sexually harassed them during the competition.

In August 2023, the Miss Universe Organization said it had determined the rigging allegations were false following a “thorough and extensive investigation,” but said Stewart and the organization were “unable to reach an agreement on her continued involvement.” Shortly after, Rose was announced as the new president and CEO.

Rose told Business Insider at the time that she was going to make Miss USA “relevant to today,” yet the scandals had only just begun.

From two queens to none

The pageant world first got wind that trouble had returned to Miss USA when Voigt resigned on May 6, 2024, three months before her reign would have come to an end. In an Instagram post, the former Miss Utah said she was stepping down to focus on her mental health. But she left a cryptic message that spelled out “I AM SILENCED” in her statement.

Two days later, Srivastava relinquished the Miss Teen USA title and said her “personal values no longer fully align with the direction of the organization.”

Questions began to swirl around Voigt and Srivastava’s resignations, especially after it was revealed that both women were bound to NDAs that forbid them from saying anything negative about the Miss USA brand, in perpetuity. More than 40 Miss USA 2023 contestants shared a joint Instagram statement demanding that Voigt be released from the NDA clause of her contract “so that she is free to speak on her experience and time as Miss USA.”

In her official Miss USA resignation letter, Voigt detailed the “detrimental mental and emotional toll” of her time as Miss USA, saying that she had been prescribed two anti-anxiety medications due to Rose’s constant harassment.

“I’ve never ever in my life been on anti-anxiety medication,” Voigt told Business Insider during the August 2025 interview. “It wasn’t something that came out of nowhere. It was a byproduct of the situation that we were in. I felt like I had to put on a facade to represent the organization because I had this title, but I didn’t agree with what was going on.”

The mothers said Rose was “very abusive, very diminishing, very gaslighting” in her correspondence with Voigt and Srivastava. By December 2023, Barbara had forbidden Rose from contacting her teen daughter directly.

When Voigt and Srivastava reported Rose’s behavior to the Miss Universe Organization, which oversees the Miss USA pageant, Barbara and Jackeline said Rose retaliated by removing their access to the Miss USA and Miss Teen USA social-media pages and impersonating them in comments that praised her Miss USA leadership.

Rose denied the allegations of a “toxic environment and bullying” in an open letter shared in May 2024. She has not responded to repeated requests for comment from Business Insider.

Voigt and Srivastava weren’t the only shocking resignations to hit Miss USA during Rose’s reign. Multiple state pageant directors decided to leave the organization, including Kimberly Nicewonder — who was in charge of the Miss Virginia pageant for three decades — and Paula Miles, who began running pageants for Miss USA in 1979. Both women said they were resigning due to their experiences with Rose.

“It’s been the worst year of our professional life,” Ryan Miles, who was codirector with his mother, Paula, told Business Insider at the time. “For her to walk away from something she built and the amount of lives she’s changed, she wanted people’s eyes to be open for what the organization has become.”

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