Coulson's the director of SHIELD. Which you didn't know. Because you didn't know he was alive. And now you do. Because I let the cat out of the bag. Oops.
And ignore Ward. He's an evil dick. I'm Skye.
Coulson did die in the Battle of New York. He just didn't stay dead. Apparently SHIELD had their fingers in some pretty weird pies. He got brought back using weird alien stuff. It's all pretty complicated. I'm sure he wanted to tell you guys, but I'm guessing he didn't really know how.