Speaker 1 We are about a month away from the Summer Olympics in Paris. Of course, there's excitement for fans and those who are qualifying, but for many of the athletes without a sponsor, it also comes with a significant cost. And one company is trying to change that by employing Olympic athletes part time while still allowing them to compete. Let's bring in Tim Gokey, CEO of Broadridge, a financial services firm that offers elite athletes a program for Olympians. And Michelle is a U.S. Olympic rower who's part of the program at Broadridge. Welcome to both of you. Tim, let me start with you. How many people are in the program? Are they all rowers, and what do regular employees think about some of the scheduling forbearance that you extend to these special cases?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Tyler. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have you started in 19, 20, 22 with, with four athletes. Today we have ten. And it's really expanded because of the very positive word of mouth, both amongst the athletes and amongst, leaders at Broadridge. You see what great associates these are. So it is really I think, with the advent of remote work, it is much, much easier to incorporate elite athletes, into the workplace than it has been in the past. People can can do their training, come back, pop into, pop into a team. We're we're a global company with 15,000 associates in 23 countries. So, you know, we already have that, that sort of virtual element going, and, it works very, very well to integrate them into our teams.

Speaker 1 Are all of the, back to the, one of the questions are all of the participants rowers? I know you were an rower at Oxford in the past.

Speaker 2 Yes. They they are at this time of ours. We got started with, with us rowing in 2022. They brought it to us as a marketing opportunity. And I really saw it as a as a talent opportunity. I do think there's a lot of great alignment. Growing is a very. It's a pretty academic sport, actually. We have our ten athletes. Two from Stanford, two from Princeton. You have Dartmouth, Columbia, Penn, many other great universities. And these women perform it really well there. And it's a sport that really, it it requires intense teamwork. You're only only as strong as your weakest link in the boat. You have to put the boat first. Grit and resilience, hard work are all real elements of of rowing. And, and that's a great fit with the business world.

Speaker 3 Michelle, thanks for joining us today. And congrats on all of your success. So, you did you have a financial background before Broadridge? And it's interesting to hear the work description of basically 20 hours of work of week, nine months of the year, the other three months you're traveling and competing. And so in a typical week, you kind of you have to do all of your workouts and all of your work.

Speaker 4 Yes, I did so prior to Broadridge. I did receive my MBA at the University of Tulsa before beginning my Olympic pursuit of a gold medal, and I was in the nonprofit sector before starting at broadridge. But Broadridge is so different. There are so many, opportunities for upward mobility for rotations through different business units. And I'm so grateful that now, you know, something like having that MBA can really be put to use while I'm also chasing this Olympic dream. So as you mentioned, it is a lot to manage both pieces of my life. For the Olympic preparations, we're doing about 18 practices a week. It's somewhere between 25 and 30 hours of practice. But as long as I can just really keep those transitions tight, we'll be on the lake in the morning for 2 to 3 hours. I'll do a quick transition, sometimes feeling like Clark Kent, moving into my Roberts work for about 4 to 5 hours a day before we go back out for a second row and in the evenings some weights or yoga or PT sessions. But while the training environments, the working environments for both jobs are very different, being on the lake versus being in my broadridge office, you know, the work itself is so similar. It's an unrelenting pursuit of excellence. It's wanting to do a great job for my team, whether that's in the boat or on the Client Success team at Broadridge every day and being fiercely focused in both areas, it's it's really enjoyable.

Speaker 3 Tim, is there some kind of tit for tat here, like the Army where if people, you know, the that you get years of service for what you've offered in terms of the near term flexibility or anything like that.

Speaker 2 Well, I think that, we have had real demand for, for these athletes, amongst our teams. And, so I think it's just it's it's, you see people, you see how they perform. You know, we're not a company that is based on years of service. We're just a based, company companies based on what can you do and and what can you add? And, as people have, wanted to rotate or move into hopefully. And, you know, my hope is we'll be able to recruit, athletes like Michelle to our company full time after after Paris and and if not, and as they sort out what they're thinking about for Los Angeles, we will support them that way, too. But, I think I think it's just real demand for us.

Speaker 1 Just want to find out from Michelle, what are your events and when will the qualifying be, or are you a singles? Doubles? Quads? What? Yes.

Speaker 4 So I compete in what is called the lightweight women's double sculls. It's a two person boat where we each hold two oars. Our first day of racing the in Paris Olympics will be July 28th. That's where we start our heats and the final will be on August 2nd.

Speaker 1 And so you've already qualified for the team. You're already on. You're good.

Speaker 4 We've qualified. We're going to do a 4th of July American off. And then the USA Olympic team has over the year off on July 5th.

Speaker 1 Congratulations to you Michelle and Tim. Thank you for being with us today. And good luck with the, employment program as it moves forward.