Employee Profile: Kate Smith

Kate Smith played a lot of sports growing up: soccer, dance, swimming, basketball, alpine skiing, snowboarding, mountain biking, running, yoga—and rowing. Kate’s experience rowing at Tabor Academy and Bates College helps her understand the oar business at Concept2 in her role as Rowing Business Coordinator.

As the stroke seat in her rowing career who leads the crew, Kate brings the same leadership skills to the oar team. She answers customer inquiries to all things oar-related, manages our Regatta Service schedule and logistics, and plans oar marketing. As Kate describes her work, “my favorite part is the variation of what I do; no two days are alike. I also love talking to people all over the world about where, why and how they row.”

Kate is a new mom to 6-month-old Liam. When she’s not out Nordic skiing or hiking along with her husband, Doug, and Liam, she stays fit with her favorite Concept2 workout: using all three machines in a pyramid starting with five minutes on one machine, four minutes of the next machine, and so forth. Kate’s summertime sport of choice is mountain biking, so the BikeErg has proven to be the perfect complement to her off-season training.

One of Kate’s favorite memories at Concept2 involves cycling. At the 2014 International Dealer Meeting, Concept2 employees explored Amsterdam by bike. No one had directions and every road and every canal looked the same. Thankfully, everyone returned to the hotel. To this day, no one is sure how!

Kate enjoys staying active outdoors, but inside she’s passionate about cooking. While Kate admits that her recipe ambition is a bit stifled with a 6-month old at home, we’re still always curious what Kate has created in the kitchen.

Kate started at Concept2 in 2012. It is the creativity she brings to the position, along with her organizational and communication skills, that have helped grow Concept2’s reputation as a leader in oars and sculls. We look forward to the excitement of 2020, and the Tokyo Olympics, with Kate organizing our regatta teams.