Road running event company Competitor Group this week will name Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi the company’s first vice president of running, a part-time role that will allow the 39-year-old to continue to train for elite races.
Keflezighi will have an office in the company’s San Diego headquarters and will move his training base to the city from Mammoth Lakes, Calif. He also will make appearances on behalf of CGI, will run in a handful of the company’s races and will create training content for CGI’s Competitor magazine.
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Keflezighi will stay on the road for his new employer as vice president of running.
Photo by: COURTESY OF PHOTORUN.NET / COMPETITOR GROUP
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“Running is still a priority, but you can do much with social media, with interviews, with appearances,” Keflezighi said.
Keflezighi said there were no concerns about category conflicts between his sponsors and those of CGI. Sneaker brand Brooks sponsors CGI’s trademark Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon Series, for example, while Keflezighi endorses Skechers. That means Keflezighi will not be able to make appearances on behalf of Brooks, but CGI officials noted that Sketchers is an advertiser in CGI media assets. In other cases, sponsors of Keflezighi are also Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon sponsors, such as PowerBar, CEP and Garmin.
In his role at CGI, Keflezighi will assist with new sponsorship proposals both for him and for the company.
CGI is owned by private equity firm Calera Capital and attracts more than 700,000 participants annually to its event brands, including the Rock ’n’ Roll Marathon Series (28 events), TriRock Triathlon Series (seven events) and Women’s Running Series (four events).
The races are largely recreational, though appearance money is paid to induce professionals to compete.
CGI’s outreach to Keflezighi began in March, when David Abeles, a golf industry veteran, took over as CEO of the company. Keflezighi has run CGI races before and in 2000 was actually offered a role with the company, but he turned it down so he could focus on running.
Abeles called the new arrangement with Keflezighi an “alignment with one of our sport’s great ambassadors.” As for Keflezighi, that new office that comes with the deal is not to be overlooked. He emigrated from Eritrea when he was 8 years old and is a naturalized U.S. citizen but he has never had an office before.
Keflezighi hopes to run the New York City Marathon this fall, a race he won in 2009 (becoming the first American to do so in 27 years), and he hopes next year to qualify for the 2016 Olympic marathon. Asked whether he would join CGI full time at that point, he replied that that has not been discussed.
