Playing At the Top Of Their Games
Sports Help Executives Network, Relieve Stress
Cites consultant Kerry J. SulkowiczFeatured on Washington Post
12.06.2004
Women executives are also making it a point not to be shut out. In recent years, golf clinics for women executives have popped up across the country. And executives such as Cynthia Gilmer, president and founder of Opus Plus Inc., a McLean information technology firm, encourage younger women interested in going into business to tee up. Gilmer, who trained in classical ballet, took up the game herself only four years ago.
David M. Mott, chief executive of MedImmune Inc., the Gaithersburg maker of FluMist, uses skiing and football to strengthen ties among his employees. The MedImmune management team takes a four-day ski trip ever year. “There’s no formal business agenda,” Mott said. “We ski hard, play hard, and have fun. It’s about communication and breaking down barriers. When you’re skiing, everyone is on equal footing.”
Thayer Capital Partners Chairman Frederic V. Malek has learned to mix a normally solitary passion — cycling — with business. Malek, 68, regularly hits the Capital Crescent Trail with Benjamin R. Jacobs, founder of JBG Cos., which is buying the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel from Thayer. He goes on annual biking tours in Europe and out west. When he’s in Aspen, Colo., he rides with Franklin Mint Chairman Stewart Resnick. The two have invested together and own part of the Raleigh Cycle Co., Malek said in an e-mail.
Written by Annys Shin