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.