What can Rachel do?
Give a quick overview of your work experience (jobs, internships, volunteering)?
I studied Law at Cambridge, but trained and worked as a secondary maths teacher through the TeachFirst Leadership Development Programme (gaining a Postgraduate Diploma in Education) in the UK, then moved into international teaching, holding Head of Department and digital learning roles at Dulwich College Singapore and Harrow International School Japan. Alongside this I've run my own run-coaching business, working remotely with endurance athletes, and I've competed as a sponsored athlete (ASICS), which has given me first-hand experience of the athlete side of brand and sponsorship relationships.
Do you have a track record of delivering measurable outcomes or KPIs?
During the TeachFirst Leadership Development Programme, I led a regional project across the South West of England, while concurrently teaching Mathematics in a state school, working with a group of Mathematics teachers to address remote-work timetabling challenges schools faced during COVID. We designed scheduling solutions that helped schools manage staff and student time more effectively during a period of significant disruption.
I later applied those same leadership and change-management skills as Head of iGCSE Mathematics at Dulwich College Singapore, where I identified a gap between the standard iGCSE syllabus and the knowledge students needed to transition successfully into the IB. I led the school's conversion from iGCSE to International Mathematics iGCSE to close that gap, running before-and-after reviews of students' subjective confidence across two years, which showed a clear improvement in how prepared students felt heading into IB Maths.
Athletically, I compete at national level for Singapore, with road-running PBs of 16:48 for 5K and 35:42 for 10K, and am targeting my debut Ironman 70.3 racing year, with the first race in October. I hold an official athlete sponsorship agreement with ASICS, based on performance. Alongside this, I run my own running coaching; in the past year, I've coached four runners to personal bests, applying the same structured, professional, data-driven approach I bring to all commitments.
What technical or industry-specific skills do you bring?
I bring data analysis skills developed through academic assessment tracking as a teacher and financial/commercial analysis in my current Master of Business (Sport Management), including detailed brand positioning and pricing strategy analysis, and multi-year financial performance analysis of ASX-listed sport retailers. I'm confident with digital platforms from my time as a school-wide Digital Learning Officer, and have first-hand experience of athlete-brand sponsorship relationships from my own partnership with ASICS, which gives me genuine insight into what athletes and brands each need from a partnership. I also hold some content creation and social media/brand-building experience from managing my own athletic profile, and I'm fluent in English, Mandarin, and French, which supports work with international or APAC-facing partners. Running my own coaching business has additionally given me experience in client relationship management, retention, and performance reporting.
What tools/platforms/software are they proficient in?
All Microsoft Software and Google Workspace software, including Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets for data analysis (financial modelling and multi-year comparative analysis developed through detailed financial analysis of ASX-listed companies during my Master of Business) as well as PowerPoint and Google Slides. I use CapCut and Instagram's native tools for content creation and editing, and I am also comfortable with TrainingPeaks and other athlete performance-tracking platforms through my coaching work.
What qualifications, certifications, or degrees do you hold?
Bachelor of Arts (Law), University of Cambridge.
Postgraduate Diploma in Education, Canterbury Christ Church University.
Master of Business (Sport Management) - IN PROGRESS, Deakin University
I'm not looking for a soft landing, but for a company that will use everything that I've spent my life building; and I'll outwork most people to prove it was worth the punt.
I already understand the sport industry from the inside; but also, as a Head of Department, I've led teams and driven measurable results; and I'm currently strengthening my analytical skills through a Master of Business in Sport Management, where I've done deep financial and brand analysis on real companies.
I also bring a level of discipline that's hard to teach: I've built this through my competitive athletic career and coaching business alongside full-time work, on top of early mornings that many people would never choose.
I'm not looking for a soft landing, but for a company that will use everything that I've spent my life building; and I'll outwork most people to prove it was worth the punt.
What steps has Rachel taken to break into the sports industry?
I enrolled in a Master of Business (Sport Management) at Deakin University to build formal, academically rigorous knowledge of the industry alongside my lived experience as an athlete. I've proactively reached out to and built relationships with people across the industry, using those conversations to understand what different roles actually involve, since I'm still working out where I'll add the most value. I've tailored my applications to sport specifically rather than sending generic ones, and I run my own coaching business, which has given me direct experience with client relationships, retention, and delivering results. I treat every conversation with someone already in the industry as genuine research.
Rachel's interest in sport all started from growing up racing across swimming, athletics, and cross country
I have spent my whole life on both the participation and leadership end of sport. I grew up racing: swimming, athletics, cross country, and competing in team sports, which collectively taught me more about who I am than any classroom ever did. I competed throughout school, and at Cambridge I earned a Full Blue in athletics and cross country. I left my Law degree behind because I wanted to teach: work closely connected to people, not paperwork.
But sport kept pulling me back. I became a sponsored athlete with ASICS in 2025, training intensely before and after work. At the time, I was teaching, which meant early starts, long days, and no room for hybrid or flexible working. Amidst the early mornings, the long runs, the long rides, and building my own coaching business alongside it all, I started noticing something else: how much depth there was in the business side of sport, the brands, the partnerships, the deals that make it possible for athletes like me to keep racing at all.
I took a gap year away from teaching to focus fully on my sport. I have a background in swim, run, and bike racing independently, and I am now training for IRONMAN 70.3s, with world championship selection (and potential future pro licensing) as a goal I am chasing. Stepping away from full-time work made me reflect on something important: that I could build a career on a hybrid or remote basis, toward something academically rigorous, that put my passions to work rather than compromising them. I know that future exists, because I have watched other triathletes build it: people who do genuinely great things in both their sport and their career, at the same time, not one after the other.
I do not know precisely what role is out there for me yet. But I know that I would be so incredibly excited to bring the things I cannot stop thinking about into it: the things that make me excited to be alive, that get me out of bed before dawn, that keep a certain fire burning in me that I have never quite been able to explain. I want to work somewhere that lets me bring that fire into other people's lives, the way sport has always brought it into mine. I understand endurance sport specifically, because it is what gets me up before 6 am every day, and I want to be on the side of the industry that builds it, because I want to help build the sport I love while I am still living inside it, not after.
Since then, Rachel has gone on to work in international education and endurance sport, achieving things like
Achievement 1 | Achievement 2 | Achievement 3 |
|---|---|---|
Leading a regional project across the South West of England addressing COVID-era timetabling challenges, while teaching Mathematics full-time | Leading Dulwich College Singapore's conversion from iGCSE to International Mathematics iGCSE, closing a gap in student preparedness for IB Maths | Coaching four runners to personal bests in the past year through her own remote coaching business |
Where does Rachel want to go?
Next 6 - 12 months | Next 5 - 10 years |
|---|---|
I would like to secure an entry-level role in the sport industry, ideally within endurance sport, where I can start applying the data analysis and stakeholder management skills I am building through my Master of Business (Sport Management). I'm particularly drawn to commercial partnerships and sponsorship, given my background as a sponsored endurance athlete gives me genuine insight into the athlete side of those relationships. I am hoping to break into organisations like IRONMAN Group and 2XU (or triathlon-adjacent companies; although general endurance sport: running or cycling also excite me), but I'm genuinely open to where the best fit turns out to be: I'd rather find the right role than force myself into one I've decided on too early. Alongside that, I want to decide whether to continue my Master of Business (or close it out with a Grad Cert) and continue racing at a highly competitive level: IRONMAN 70.3 Port Macquarie in October and IRONMAN 70.3 Melbourne in November, with both races building toward longer-term performance goals. I want a role that lets me grow properly in the industry while I am still racing seriously, not one that asks me to choose between the two. This involves a bit of hybrid work arrangement, but I am extremely hardworking and conscientious, so hybrid work doesn't mean less work! | In the long term, I want to be working at a senior level somewhere in the sport industry, in a role where I've built genuine expertise and a strong reputation, not just a title. Commercial partnerships are where my interest and experience currently point, but I'm still figuring out exactly where I fit best, and I'd rather stay open to that than commit to a narrow path this early. What matters more to me is the kind of work: something that lets me use what I understand about athletes, brands, and performance, and that I could still be racing seriously alongside. My long-term goal is to prove that a serious sporting life and a serious career can be built together, not in sequence. |
What sporting problem keeps Rachel up at night, and how would you solve it?
I'd love to solve how badly women's data is used in endurance sport. So much of the coaching, nutrition, and training science I've come across, including in my own training, is still built on research done on male physiology, and it shows up in real ways: injury risk, recovery times, how bone health is monitored, how load is managed around hormonal cycles.
I've had to advocate for myself around a bone stress injury that a lot of standard programming simply doesn't account for properly.
I think brands and organisations that get genuinely serious about this, not as a marketing angle but as real investment in research and product, have a huge opportunity in front of them, and I'd love to be part of building that.
What is Rachel like?
What kind of environment do you thrive in?
I thrive in environments with genuine structure and clear expectations, but real trust and autonomy within that structure. I do well when I'm given ownership over outcomes rather than micromanaged on process, and I'm at my best around people who communicate directly and give honest feedback rather than avoiding difficult conversations. Having spent years in early-morning training before work, I'm also naturally disciplined and don't need external pressure to stay on track.
When have you had to show resilience in your life or career?
Earlier this year, I developed a femoral stress response, a serious bone injury that put my racing on hold and required a long, carefully managed return to training under close physio guidance. Rather than treating it as a setback, I used the time to restructure my training, moved countries to reset my environment and coaching setup, and kept building toward my long-term goals in parallel: continuing my Master of Business, developing my industry network, and staying disciplined about a graduated return to running. I am now back racing and targeting two IRONMAN 70.3 events this year. That period taught me that resilience is not about pushing through blindly; it is about adapting plans while never losing sight of the goal.
What about Rachel interests outside of work?
What are your interests outside of work?
Outside of sport, I love to do a bit of yoga, not just as recovery, but as something that keeps me grounded. I also find real therapy in baking: both in the process itself and in the joy it brings to other people's lives. Having lived in Singapore, the UK, and Japan, I'm curious about cooking and how it connects to a place, and I love that languages give me the same thing from a different angle: I speak English, Mandarin, and French, and I find that speaking a language properly gives you a different insight into a culture than simply visiting it ever could.
What is your favourite sporting moment?
My favourite sporting moment is Lucy Charles-Barclay winning the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, just four weeks after a DNF at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona. She put that heartbreak behind her to regain the 70.3 world title, edging out Taylor Knibb. What I love about it isn't just the win; it's the timeline: most athletes would need months to process a DNF at that level, and she turned it into a world title a month later. It's the kind of resilience I think about in my own training and racing: that a setback isn't the end of the story, it's just the chapter before the comeback.
What’s your ideal holiday?
My ideal holiday is the exact opposite of my everyday life: a beach, sun, sea breeze, and the ocean. I spend so much of my life in motion, training, racing, thinking about the next session, that my idea of a proper break is genuinely doing nothing. No plan, no structure, just good food, warm weather, and enough time by the water to actually switch my brain off for a few days.
If you had 30 minutes to pick the brain of anyone, who would it be and why?
If I had 30 minutes with anyone, I'd pick Ashleigh Gentle. She's built one of the most consistent careers in the sport as an Australian, and having relocated to Melbourne myself, I love that she's proof you can be genuinely world-class in this sport from right here. I'd want to ask her how she's managed the mental side of racing at that level over such a long career, how she thinks about longevity rather than just chasing one big result, and what she'd tell someone earlier in their journey about balancing serious training with everything else life throws at you. I think there's a lot to learn from someone who's stayed at the top for years, not just someone who's had one standout result.
What’s one book or podcast that’s helped your career you recommend?
On Purpose with Jay Shetty has helped me clarify what I want most in life and in my career trajectory. While each episode covers a different topic, many have helped me reframe setbacks constructively and changed how I handle difficult conversations and challenges as Head of Department, rather than letting them derail my focus.
Additional details
Where in the world are you located, and where are you open to work?
Living in Melbourne, open to work anywhere in Australia.
What is the most important consideration for you in your next role?
Mentorship and learning directly from people working in partnerships and sponsorship (or, as discussed, perhaps some other job role that might suit me better, that I don't yet know), but definitely not just 'observing from the sidelines'. A company that can facilitate my growth, building the commercial and strategic skills to be successful and put my strengths to good use, ideally within endurance sport. Beyond the day-to-day work, I want to work for a company that invests in professional growth, where roles aren't stagnant, and where early in my career there is a culture of structured feedback, real responsibility, and a pathway into a financially sustainable career.
What others say about Rachel
My Head of School at Dulwich has described me as someone who brings real rigour to how I approach curriculum and data, someone colleagues can rely on to actually dig into a problem rather than paper over it.
Teammates from my Deakin group projects have commented on how thorough and detail-oriented my work is, particularly when it comes to verifying data before we submit anything.
People I've coached often tell me they appreciate that I'm honest with them rather than just telling them what they want to hear, which I think reflects how I operate more generally.
What questions does Rachel have for employers?
What are the biggest priorities for the team right now, and how would someone in this role contribute to them?
How is success measured in this role, and how often is that reviewed?
What's the culture like day-to-day: is the team more collaborative, or do people mostly work independently?
What does career progression typically look like from this role, and where have past graduates or juniors ended up?
What's the biggest challenge facing the business or this part of it right now?
How much support and mentorship is there for someone early in their career here?
Is there flexibility in this role for someone balancing it with a serious athletic commitment, and has that come up with other team members before?
What would success look like for someone in this role after six months, and after a year?
What do you personally enjoy most about working here?
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