Boston Rowing Federation

The Boston Rowing Federation is a pan-river, Greater Boston effort to support a limited number of oarsmen and oarswomen who are capable of contending for Olympic and Paralympic medals in the current quadrennial and who have committed to live and train in Boston. Support may include career advancing opportunities, mentoring, and coverage of certain training and travel expenses. In the 2013-2016 Rio Olympic Cycle, the BRF supported Rio Women's Olympic Silver Medallist Gevvie Stone, the 5th place Lightweight Men's Double of Andrew Campbell and Josh Konieczny, and the coxswain of the Silver Medal Winning Paralympic Coxed Four, Jenny Sichel.

Over the past three Olympic cycles the Charles River has been home to a handful of senior level athletes who have gone on to Olympic competition. The Boston Rowing Federation was recently founded on the premise that the presence and success of these athletes in Boston has been benefiical not just for their own personal development, but also for USA Rowing the thousands of recreational and more serious athletes in Boston who have seen these Olympians as role models. With great water available most of the time, many boathouses and high level coaches, as well as a vibrant economy, Boston should be a natural training home for an aspiring small boat athlete.

However, it is hard for any young adult to make a home in Boston for a period of years without a
meaningful employment opportunity and some help with training, equipment and travel expenses. The Boston Rowing Federation is continuing to build a network of employment opportunities and housing options for these athletes and as well as raising a fund to help cover training and travel expenses. Models for the Boston Rowing Federation can be seen in part in the Princeton Rowing Association which supports national team athletes training in Princeton, NJ, and Potomac Boat Club in Washington DC which has successfully helped with housing and travel expenses.

Applicant athletes would be expected to meet US senior team standards. They will be selected by BRF upon consultation with experts who may include national team coaches, the US Rowing High Performance Director, and senior university coaches. BRF is agnostic as to club affiliation, boat class or gender. Under the current national team structure it is doubtful that more than a half-dozen athletes would meet our criteria and be willing to commit to training in Boston through a quadrennial. Depending on the success of the Federation, its purpose might be expanded after the Rio Olympics in 2016.

BRF will partner with Community Rowing Inc. which has agreed to take on the role of Fiscal Sponsor. All donations will be made to CRI which will disperse according to the advice of BRF and consistent with all applicable laws governing charitable activities. Funding requests for the athletes will be reviewed on a case by case basis by the Board of BRF and a Performance Committee. In no case will a conflicted party be involved in any selection or funding decisions.

BRF Board of Directors

Chuck Pieper

Chuck is a current Masters rower at Cambridge Boat Club (CBC) where he has been a member for over 15 years. Together with Gregg Stone and Greg Benning, Chuck co-founded the Boston rowing Federation with the goal of providing the needed support for US national team athletes who do not receive sufficient funding from the USOC to train at a level required to achieve an Olympic medal. His support for National Team rowing programs is also voiced through his Board positions on the National Rowing Foundation and The Princeton National Regatta Association. Chuck is also a long time Board member and a Managing Director of the Head of the Charles Regatta. Chuck holds A.B. and MBA degrees from Harvard. An International businessman, Chuck lived and worked overseas for 30 years and learned to row at Marlow Rowing Club in England in the mid-90s. He has won numerous National and International medals in both sweep and sculling with CBC, Marlow and Occoquan International, including 6 in a row first place finishes with Team Attager in the HOCR. Currently Chairman & CEO of Cambridge Semantics, a software company here in Boston, Chuck was CEO of half a dozen businesses for GE over a 20 year career there, and spent the last 15 years building a portfolio of global Private Equity businesses, most recently as Vice Chairman of Alternative Assets for Credit Suisse. He has served on numerous Corporate and not for profit Boards and organizations; he continues his International business interests with current Board positions in the Middle East, Europe, China and the US.

Gregg Stone

Gregg Stone co-founded the Boston Rowing Foundation with Chuck Pieper and Greg Benning after observing the successes and challenges of the Olympic campaigns of Steve Tucker, Michelle Guerette and his daughter Gevvie. Gregg has been in the investment business for over forty years and currently serves as the Chairman of PHT Corp., a pharmaceutical service company based in Charlestown, Massachusetts and as a director of Cambridge Trust Company and two private companies. He worked at Pell, Rudman & Co. Inc. (now Atlantic Trust Company), after practicing law with Hemenway & Barnes in Boston. He holds J.D. and A.B. degrees from Harvard. He is a director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston and Camp Pasquaney and a trustee emeritus of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He has rowed since age 12 and coached his daughter to 7^th place in the single at the London Olympic Games, and to a silver medal in the single at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Email: GStone at kestrelvm.com

Jane Morse

Jane Morse serves as a board member of the Boston Rowing Foundation, a trustee of Community Rowing Inc. and rows from Cambridge Boat Club. She worked as a consultant in information technology management and retired as a senior executive of the former BayBank and BankBoston, where she headed the technology planning department.

Upon retiring, Jane began rowing and sincethat time has become a gold medalist at Masters National and International Competitions. She served as a board member at Community Rowing for ten years and as CRI's Board President for seven years from 2003 through the end of 2009, Jane led CRI's $15 million capital campaign to build a new boathouse.

Email: jgmorse@morses.net

Igor Belakovskiy

Igor learned to row as a Freshman at MIT. After graduating rowed lightweight with the Riverside High Performance Group, winning at Canadian Henley and the Head of the Charles. In addition to oars, has been known to pick up a camera as the owner of Scullingfool Photography. Joined the BRF as a representative of Riverside, where he has led multiple fundraising efforts for athletes competing at the World Championships, while serving as President and Vice President. Igor currently works as software engineer for Audible.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com.
Email: igor1x@gmail.com

Greg Benning

Greg Benning, is a recent President of Cambridge Boat Club, where he has been a member since 1993. He is an active masters-level rower and sculler, and has a son (Ned) at Cornell University and daughter (Claire) at St. Marks School (both rowers). He was on the Steering Committee for CRI's Harry Parker Boathouse, was very active in USRowing's 2012 Row to London campaign, and is a co-founder of The Head of the Quinobequin Regatta. He captained the 1984 crew at the University of Pennsylvania. Greg is a Boston-based investment banker, and a principal of Benning Associates LLC and BML Securities LLC, and Managing Director of Back Bay Life Science Advisory LLC. Greg and his wife Anne live in Weston, MA.