Philip Adkins was a member of the Columbia Heavyweight Varsity Crew and graduated from Columbia College with a BA in East Asian Studies. While an Undergraduate at Columbia, Adkins spent his summers at Vesper Boat Club and was a member of Vesper’s Senior National Championship 8 in 1978. After a successful business career in Tokyo, Japan, Adkins acquired a controlling stake in the Cascade and James Boag’s Breweries in Tasmania, Australia. Adkins re-structured the outstanding debts of the company and launched “James Boag’s Premium Lager”. James Boag’s Premium went on to win more Awards for Excellence than any beer in Australian brewing history. In 2001 Adkins set-up an equestrian training facility in England to pursue his goal of participating in the Beijing Olympics on the Three-Day Eventing Team. From 2001 until 2007, Adkins competed on the International Three-Day Circuit, qualifying to ride at the Three-Star Level by 2006. In 2007, his horse “Parkmore Ed” was selected by Team GB to represent Great Britain in Beijing, with a British rider. Adkins attended The Games as a member of Team GB and Parkmore Ed won a Bronze Medal in the Team Three Day Event. In 2007, Adkins went back into business. As the CEO of Fairstar Heavy Transport, Fairstar Heavy Transport was acquired by its largest rival in 2012. From 2012 until 2014, in compliance with his “Non-Compete” undertakings, Adkins went back into rowing and teamed up with his Classmate at Columbia, Juan Felix, to row the Double Scull out of the Long Beach RowingAssociation. Felix has represented Puerto Rico in the Single in both the LA and Seoul Olympic Games and in the Double, they won a number of West Coast Master’s Regattas as well the Royal Canadian Henley Masters Regatta. They participated in the Head of the Charles Regatta from 2013 until 2017 in both the Double as well as the Quad. Adkins also competed for the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, Grasshopper Club in Zurich and the Peterborough City Rowing Club in a wide variety of sweep, sculling and coastal rowing Regattas from 2012 until 2018. He remains a Member of the Vesper Boat Club in Philadelphia. In 2014, Adkins established a new Shipping Company, RED BOX Energy Services. As the CEO of RED BOX, Adkins has been instrumental for the design, construction, finance and daily operations of two of the largest ice-breakers, the AUDAX and the PUGNAX, in the maritime world. Adkins believes most of the success he has had in life is attributable to his experiences in rowing. The importance of teamwork, selflessness, endurance, discipline and humor are universal values of those who row. Adkins would like to contribute as best he can to support the endeavors of the NRF and in doing so repay a life-long debt to rowing. As Adkins notes, “I have decided recently to swap pain for fear and have hung up the sculling blades for a while and started competing once again on the Three Day Circuit in the UK!”
