A UW alum Chad Brown is the current CFO for Trek Bicycle. He started out of school at GE Healthcare and worked there for ~9 years before moving on to Trek Bicycle in 2011. Brown has been the CFO since 2015 as well as the VP of Retail since 2017.
-Trek was founded in a red barn in Waterloo, Wisconsin in 1976. About 27 miles from downtown Madison. -Trek is a $1 Billion+ company with over 3,000 employees. -Trek is privately held by family and employees. -Trek takes pride in their research and development making the best products available for competitors. -Trek is also invested in increasing the amount of people competing in high school mountain biking. -Trek is also behind the B-Cycles you can find around Madison. - Trek is now an owner of their own professional cycling teams in Europe. They have successfully influenced the organizing committee to have equal pay across mens and women's disciplines. What advice to you have for students? CB: Don't be afraid to make mistakes especially in college because no one will remember it when you graduate. Also read Jim Collins' books to prepare for the workplace.
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Tim De Lay is an Alumnus of UW '97.
Worked for public television for experience as a student from 95-97 before moving to working for Channel 3, WISC-TV, in Madison from 1997-2002. Eventually he moved to KOAA-TV in Colorado Springs from 2002-2005 and KWGN-TV Denver from 2005-2008. After KWGN was bought out in 2008 he moved to Peak Uplink operating a satellite truck for various network clients including ESPN, FOX, Ellen etc. A great job for a younger person but it was a straining job on personal life and work life balance. Altitude Sports - Kroenke Sports and Entertainment. Started first as a Broadcast Engineer from 2012 to 2016 before moving up to work as a Production Operations Manager. KSE is owned by Stan Kroenke and their sports properties include: Colorado Avalanche Denver Nuggets Colorado Rapids Colorado Mammoths Arsenal L.A. Rams Tim works traditionally works the most with the first three entities. The future of broadcasting is the transition from copper cables and wiring to Ethernet and 4K technology. As well as utilizing more and more options for digital streaming including Facebook Live. This leads to a decrease in scripting and more control in the hands of talent. Questions: What do you see the next five-ten years of your career looking like? TD: I always try to stay learning and growing especially with how technology is changing so rapidly. As things continue to change and evolve so will my role. This continuing growth and change means it's going to be hard to predict where I am role wise but a willingness to change means I can always continue working within sports. Why did you transition from news to sports? TD: The ways that sports connects everyone and brings people together is really appealing. It is a happy place rather than the violence and division I found working in sports. How is your job unique because the team, building and production are all owned by the same? TD: It really allows us a lot of access other regional broadcasters might not have. Generally there are fewer steps between the production house and the team. Nate Pokrass is currently the Director of Community Investment and Partnerships for American Family Insurance. As well as tournament director of the American Family Insurance Championship in Madison, Wisconsin.
Three primary objectives of American Family's involvement in sports: 1. Increase Brand Health 2. New Customer Acquisition 3. Agent, Employee and Community Impact American Family Insurance is looking to both grow and consolidate the market of Milwaukee. American Family Insurance Championship: -Building out all of the operations for the tournament takes roughly 6 weeks every year. -Increase Fan Experience: Celebrity Group -Tournament Week Concert Tournament is a Non-Profit organization raising 7.1 Million dollars the past three tournaments. Questions- How did the Miller Park to American Family Field rebrand come together? NP: We have entered into a 15 year deal with the Brewers after Miller chose not to renew their deal. We're working on continuing to develop signage in the stadium as well as how we will be activating that space. How much of the growth of American Family is related to sports? NP: We have been steadily growing for a long time. We can't attribute that growth just to sports but the use of sports and entertainment marketing in the past 10 to 15 years is definitely a piece of the puzzle and our success. Courtney Reukauf: Marketing Manager
Lauren Peterson: Marketing Facilitator / Internship Coordinator What does a marketing facilitator do? LP: Create and manage marketing campaigns as well as managing on site marketing events and activations. What is Good Karma Brands? CR: An affiliate of ESPN who owns the regional rights to activate the ESPN brand through digital and radio broadcasts. GKB is the umbrella company that runs ESPN offices in Madison, Milwaukee, West Palm Beach (FL) and Cleveland (OH). How much collaboration is there with other ESPN stations that you own? CR: We collaborate frequently with Milwaukee especially. We do a lot with them under ESPN Wisconsin as whole when we run cross-city wide promotion campaigns. Can you tell us a little more about the internship program? LP: The first portion of the internship program is similar to a rotational program where you try a lot of different things and portions of the business. In the second half you work a lot more in one certain area of the program that you find interesting. The internship program also helps ESPN Madison to activate on game days and events out of the typical office day. CR: Applications are due by April 10th for the summer internship with ESPN Madison. What is something that you don't like about your job? CR: The hours of your job are all over the place. LP: The job takes a lot of flexibility which is challenging for a lot of people. Can you touch on some the events you guys plan and how your role is impacted by that? LP: We do a lot with golf events over the summer. We also do a lot of tailgates for the Wisconsin Football games and prep sports activation. CR: We're also involved with producing and activating the Wisconsin Sports Awards highlighting all the good stuff that happens in Wisconsin sports over the course of the past year. |
Website EditorMy name is April Trauba and on behalf of the entire board, we hope you find this information valuable. Archives
November 2022
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