New York Road Runners
Christine Burke
Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Runner Products, New York Road Runners
Born: Long Branch, N.J.
Education: Williams College, B.A., political science; Fordham University, MBA, marketing
Running may be a simple task, but Christine Burke’s role at New York Road Runners is certainly not. She oversees all business development and strategic partnerships, membership, charity programs and licensing and merchandising, among other responsibilities.
A major point of focus for Burke, who joined NYRR in early 2015, has been finding a way to engage runners when they weren’t in New York or were unable to get into a sold-out race. She partnered with leading runner tracking social network Strava in 2018 to create and implement NYRR’s rollout of its virtual products and launch the NYRR Virtual Racing platform, which has been instrumental in extending the organization’s audience beyond the New York area.
“The launch of virtual racing is probably what we’ve put a lot of effort and focus on,” Burke said. “It is important from a tech integration standpoint and from an alignment with our mission standpoint. This was a great way to do both of those things, so the creation of a new community that’s really engaged in running with us has been very beneficial.”
Under Burke’s leadership, a record $40 million was raised and donated through 10,000 charity runners participating in the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon and United Airlines NYC Half Marathon official charity partner programs.
“We’ve been really fortunate in that our different programs that we’ve launched have been really quite successful,” Burke said. — Lucas Smith
Getting to know...
Favorite day-off activity: A long run and the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle.
Something your friends would consider “so you”: A Coca-Cola for breakfast.
Attribute I look for when hiring: The desire to learn and collaborate.
Misperception of working in sports business: That the work is done when the race or game is over.
Woman in sports business you’d like to meet: I wish I could have met Grete Waitz, the nine-time winner of the New York City Marathon. Grete was deeply involved in starting the NYRR youth programs in the late ‘90s and founded AKTIV Against Cancer, which encourages cancer patients to exercise through their treatments.
Role of sports in social issues: Whenever sports can be leveraged to start important conversations, I’m supportive. As the mother of three young kids, I see how they look to their sports heroes as role models, and if sports can educate and entertain simultaneously, the world will be better for it.
