ROME & LOS ANGELES, January 3, 2024 — CrewLAB is thrilled to welcome Matt Smith, the former Executive Director of World Rowing, to the company.
Matt Smith’s international leadership of more than 30 years positions him as one of the most influential people in the sport of rowing. As its Executive Director, he guided FISA/World Rowing during the sport’s largest period of global growth and modernization, expanding from 64 in 1991 to over 150 member nations. Having been a rower, a coach and FISA’s Development Director, he never lost focus on the sport’s unique strengths, its core values and the primordial importance of keeping the coach/athlete experience at the center of the sport. As a result, Smith has a deep understanding of how it really works for coaches and leaders inside national federations, clubs, and universities, and is respected by the key stakeholders at every level of the sport around the world.
“Matt’s impact on rowing is unrivalled and I’ve seen first-hand how incredibly capable he is,” said Dominic Pardini, CEO of CrewLAB. “His vision and execution transformed international rowing into a worldwide phenomenon. With his help, we can accelerate bringing our game-changing technology to many more teams, coaches and athletes to help them perform at their best.”
On the CrewLAB team, Matt’s insights will spur international expansion and inform new development focused on the needs of top-level rowing programs. His time working closely with other international sports federations in Lausanne will also make CrewLAB’s time to launch into new sports more efficient.
Matt Smith said, “The day-to-day life lessons from the sport delivered by the coach are the critical takeaways that shape the rest of the athletes’ lives. The environment today in which young rowers are living is more complicated than ever, and the tools used by the coach need to evolve to adapt to the fast pace that modern technology imposes without compromising their fundamental mission. CrewLAB uses the power of technology to help coaches better understand the stress and demands on time that their rowers face each day, and find the most effective way to communicate their messages and structure their training time. I took time to study the coaching tools on the market and, in my opinion, CrewLAB best enhances the critical coach/athlete relationship, which is essential for success, which is why I’m pleased to share my experience to support that mission. Together, we can use CrewLAB to continue to create tools that solidly meet the needs of the rowing community, from school- and university-level to high performance.”
“I’m honored to have Matt in the crew,” added founder and Head Coach, Simon Hoadley, “His expertise will help us do even more for our coaches and athletes who deserve the best.”
