NRF Adds Four New Board Members in 2024

Patrick Eble grew up in Philadelphia and learned to row on the Schuylkill River at La Salle College High School. After La Salle, he rowed at Princeton University and graduated with a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. At Princeton, Patrick rowed in the First Varsity all 4 years. He has two bronze medals and one silver medal at Eastern Sprints (2014-2016) and two bronze medals at IRAs (2015-2016). Following Princeton, Patrick attended Cambridge University where he received a Master’s in Environmental Policy and rowed in the 2017 Boat Race.

After moving back to the States, Patrick began training with the U.S. Senior National Team. His first Senior Team was in 2017 where he stroked the Men’s 8+ to a silver medal in Sarasota, Florida. Patrick competed on the National Team from 2017-2020.

While training for the National Team, Patrick began working at Alpine Investors. Alpine is a middle market private equity firm with $15b in AUM focused on software and services. Patrick has been at Alpine for six years and is a Principal at the firm focused on software Investments. Patrick currently serves on the board of three portfolio companies.

Patrick lives in Manhattan with his wife Rebecca and daughter Madeline. He is a member of the New York Athletic Club.

Alex Osborne grew up in Los Angeles, CA, and attended Harvard-Westlake, where he won 2 CIF golf championships, 3 CIF basketball championships, and the school’s 2003 slam dunk contest. After high school, Alex attended Stanford University, where he walked on to the rowing team and graduated in 2009 with a B.A. in Economics. While at Stanford, Alex won several Cal and Washington shirts, multiple IRA medals, and was named the 2009 Pac-10 Rower of the Year. Alex began his career on the US national team in 2007 and concluded his rowing career after competing in the 2012 London Olympics in the Men’s Quad. He won the 2008 Under-23 World Championships in the Men’s 8+.

For the past eight years, Alex has been on the Product team at Snap, where he led the Safety product pillars, the development of Snap’s Games and Mini Programs platforms, and initial self-serve ad-buying tools. Later this month, he will be starting a new role at Match Group, as the Senior Director of Product, Innovation. Along with his wife (Eva) and two close friends, Alex is also a Co-founder of Happy Cow, a chocolate supplement designed to help lactosesensitive humans digest dairy. Happy Cow is available at top retailers like Whole Foods and Walmart nationwide. He also serves on the boards of A Most Beautiful Thing Inclusion Fund and Fidelity Charitable’s NextGen Advisory Committee.

Alex lives in Portland, OR, with his wife Eva (who won the 2009 NCAA Rowing Championships at Stanford) and two kids, Eno (3) and Ida (1).

Taylor Ritzel grew up on ranch in Colorado and was a swimmer for 12 years before being recruited to row at Yale before having ever touched an oar. At Yale, Taylor rowed in the First Varsity all four years, winning three National Championships, three Eastern Sprints and serving as Captain her senior year. She competed as part of the Women’s 8+ at the 2009 and 2010 U23 World Championships finishing second and first respectively.

Upon graduating with a degree in History, Taylor joined the U.S. Senior National Team in Princeton, winning the 2010 and 2011 World Championships in the Women’s 8+. In 2012, she was part of the gold medal winning Women’s 8+ at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

After retiring from rowing, Taylor pursued a career in the entertainment industry, working as a content executive at both Hulu and Netflix. She then earned her MBA at the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University before joining Alpine Investors as an Operating Executive. Taylor currently serves as the COO of Novalaw, the legal industry’s first-ever Multiple Services Organization (MSO) in the United States.

Taylor lives in Denver and serves as an Athlete Rep on the USRowing Board of Directors.

Patrick began rowing at the Cincinnati Junior Rowing Club in 1994 and went on to row at Harvard, where he secured the National Championship title in 2001. From 2001 to 2008, he represented the United States on five national teams and competed in the men’s lightweight four at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympics. Throughout his rowing career, Patrick earned two World Championship medals— a gold in 2008 and a silver in 2003, both in the men’s lightweight eight—and won six National Championships.

Professionally, Patrick is a partner at Harding Loevner, a New Jersey-based investment management company. He plays a pivotal role in overseeing more than $50 billion in client assets and is on the portfolio management team of several of the firm’s key funds, including the flagship International Equity, International Developed Markets Equity, and International Carbon Transition Equity strategies. In addition, Patrick serves as a global sector analyst, focusing on the health care and real estate sectors. Before joining Harding Loevner, he developed his equity research skills at GAMCO Investors and Ironbound Capital.

Patrick received his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Harvard College in 2002 and completed his Master of Business Administration (MBA) at Columbia Business School in 2011, where he participated in the Applied Value Investing program. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation. Beyond his career in finance, Patrick is dedicated to community service, volunteering with organizations like Mountain Roots Education and the Grand Targhee Ski and Snowboard Foundation

NRF Adds Five New Board Members in 2023

Elle Logan rowed at Stanford University and graduated in 2011 with a BA in History. In 2009, the women’s rowing team won the Pac-10 Championships and the NCAA Championships. Elle was named the Pac-12 Rower of the Century in 2016.

Elle was a member of the U.S. National Rowing team from 2007-2016. She competed at three Olympic games (Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016) as a member of the Women’s 8+ and has three Olympic gold medals.  In addition, Elle competed at various World Championships,  World Cups and other international events in the 8+, 4-, 4x, 2- and 1x earning an assortment of medals during that time.  The 2008 Olympic boat was named “Crew of the Year” by FISA in 2008 and  inducted into the National Rowing Hall of Fame™ in 2014.

After transitioning away from training full time in 2016, Elle moved into the commercial real estate industry and received her MS in Real Estate Finance and Development from the University of Washington Runstad School in 2019. She spent a couple years at Katerra, a vertically integrated construction company, before joining Hess Callahan Partners, a Class A office in-fill developer in Seattle, and is now currently an asset manager at BentallGreenOak, a global commercial real estate investment manager headquartered in New York.

Elle lives on Vashon Island in Seattle, Washington with her husband Carlos and two boys Guillermo (5) and Alejandro (3). In addition to rowing the RP3 whenever she gets a moment Elle has taken up open water swimming in the Puget Sound.

Matt Knifton grew up in Austin, Texas, where he played football like every other boy. He never thought about rowing until he was recruited to the fledgling University of Texas Crew in the mid-1980’s. As men’s captain, Matt worked with many others to build UT Crew, and that club program would eventually spawn the UT varsity women’s juggernaut of today. After graduating with a chemical engineering degree in 1990, Matt rowed at Vesper (and lived in the boathouse) until he was reassigned
to the new National Sculling Training Center in Occoquan, VA. Matt spent two years there rowing and constructing various Soviet-era rowing torture machines for Coach Igor Grinko. Although Matt never realized his dream of making the 1992 Olympics, he has fond memories of that experience and the great people he met.

After graduating from Texas Tech School of Law, Matt returned to Austin in 1996 and began his twenty year career as an environmental attorney with the law firm of Thompson & Knight. In 1999, Matt founded Texas Rowing Center (TRC), which is now the largest rowing club in Texas and the southwest with over 800 rowing members and 200 juniors. TRC is also home to a robust masters program that has won the USRowing Masters Nationals Club Trophy in 2017, 2019, 2021, and 2022.

In addition to rowing, TRC is the reputed to be the world’s largest standup paddle-board rental operation with over 500 boards. The advent of the “SUP” and its popularity in Austin allowed Matt to retire from law and focus on running TRC. In 2010, Matt helped start Texas Rowing For All, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the mission to provide rowing and paddling for people with physical, sensory and intellectual disabilities. TRC is also a national leader in diversifying the sport of rowing by recruiting and hiring athletes and coaches of color.

In 2021, Matt hired Coach Peter Mansfeld and started TRC High Performance, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with the mission of training and supporting rowers hoping to compete in the World Rowing Championships and Olympic Games. Thanks in large part to the generous support of the National Rowing Foundation, all eight TRC-HP athletes competed at the 2022 World Rowing Championships.

Matt continues to compete as a masters athlete, winning medals at Masters Nationals, Head of the Charles, the Henley Masters Regatta; as well as a CRASH-B hammer in 2018. But Matt’s greatest rowing pleasure is watching his daughter Kate compete. Kate has stroked the UT 1V8+ to two consecutive undefeated seasons, including two NCAA 1V8+ victories, and has led UT to two back-to-back NCAA Women’s Rowing Team National Championships (Hook’em!). Kate also stroked the U.S. four (all Longhorns) to a gold last summer at the U23 World Championships, which earned her the 2022 USRowing U23 Female Athlete of the Year award. Matt is also the father of another amazing young woman, Sophie, who is a student at The University of Chicago. Sophie left rowing after one week because she wisely “doesn’t like to hurt.”

Mr. Teti is a Co-founder and Partner at Eagle Cliff Real Estate Partners. Prior to forming Eagle Cliff, Mr. Teti served as Executive Vice President of Real Estate Operations at Columbia Property Trust where he was responsible for directing the operations of Columbia’s portfolio of investments nationwide and served on Columbia’s Investment Committee. Mr. Teti came to Columbia in 2020 from Normandy Real Estate Partners, where he was a Partner and head of their leasing and asset management group, responsible for managing the leasing and marketing activities for the company’s portfolio. Mr. Teti also spent time on business development and capital raising activities for Normandy and served on the investment committee. Earlier, Mr. Teti was part of Normandy’s acquisitions team, where he assisted in underwriting and closing acquisitions and financings. Mr. Teti holds a degree in Sociology from Princeton University, where he was a member of the National Champion rowing team. Mr. Teti is also a three-time member of the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team, competing in the Sydney, Athens and Beijing Games. Mr. Teti is active in his community and serves on the Board of Trustees at Stuart Country Day School, the Madison Square Park Conservancy and Playworks. He has held leadership positions with several local and national non-profits and charities, including Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, The Diabetes Research Institute and the U.S. Olympic Rowing Team.

Ben Holbrook started rowing at Brown University and graduated in 1997 with a degree with Honors in Psychology.  Ben won two National Championships, two Eastern Sprints and three IRAs among other medals while at Brown.  Ben rowed on numerous National Teams from 1994 to 2004, and competed in the 2004 Olympics in the Men’s Quad.  Ben won two world championship medals including a gold medal in 1995 and silver in 2000 both in the Men’s Coxed Four.  Ben also won a gold medal in the Men’s 8 at the Pan Am Games in 1999.

Ben is a Senior Managing Director at Mason Wells, a middle market private equity firm based in Milwaukee, WI.  Ben has been at Mason Wells for 18 years and is a senior partner at the firm where he oversees the firm’s consumer product investments.  Ben is currently chairman of the board for three portfolio companies and also oversees the firm’s business development efforts.  Prior to Mason Wells, Ben was a research analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, PA.  Ben is also on the board of the Petit National Ice Center in Milwaukee, WI where numerous Olympic speed skating trials and US Championships have been held. 

Ben and his wife Danika live in Whitefish Bay, WI along with their four children, Teah, Amalia, Lincoln and Carmen.  Danika began rowing at the age of 11.  She rowed at Princeton University and graduated in 1995 after winning two national championships and two Eastern Sprints.  Danika also competed on numerous National Teams, winning a gold medal in the Lightweight Women’s 4 in 1994. Danika also competed in the 2004 Olympic Games, earning a 5^th place finish as the stroke of the Women’s Quad.  Ben and Danika moved back to Milwaukee, WI in 2004 following the Olympic Games.

Olivia Coffey’s parents, Calvin and Margaret, taught her to row when she was in middle school. She began rowing competitively at Phillips Academy and continued rowing at Harvard University, where she was a co-captain and All-American. She represented the U.S. at eight World Championships, winning a medal at every event and gold in the 2009 U23 W8+, 2013 W4-, 2015 W4x, and 2018 W8+. She was a spare at the 2016 Olympics and raced in the W8+ at the 2020 Olympics. Olivia also raced for Cambridge and won the 2018 Boat Race. 

She is an Associate at One Equity Partners and is involved with investments in the industrial, healthcare, and technology industries. She is a Board member at Dragonfly Financial Technologies.

Olivia and her husband, Michael, live in New York. Michael rowed at Harvard and won the 2003 IRA. Michael was a World Champion in the M8+ in 2005 and also won the 2005 Boat Race rowing for Oxford. Olivia has three older sisters, Laurie, Claire, and Roxanne. Olivia and Michael have a cat named Amo.