Mr Phelps

I was pondering the pro's and con's of having Michael Phelps on the board.

Obviously lots of media and political sway, but how much business acumen has he absorbed from that blue line at the bottom of the pool over the past 25 years?

"I have some personal goals that I would like to achieve in the business world and I don't actually think anybody knows what they are," says Phelps. "I've always done that. And, yeah, I've always been somebody who's kept some very specific goals to myself." (CNBC Interview with Phelps, Feb 2017)

So, is he better placed as a 'brand ambassador? Leaving the business side of things to the pro's?

It seems like he wants to get more involved, essentially he wants to "be Michael Jordan"

Interestingly he owns a company called LEESA, an online direct-to-consumer mattress supplier. He is an advocate for sports people and children getting the right amount of sleep. He has spent a large proportion of his career strapped to a device to read his Deep/Light sleep, REM and awake time throughout the night.

His foundation is with promoting swimming and healthy life choices for young people.

Seems like a better fit than most celebrity ambassadors.

I can see him pushing the overall sleep/health analysis side of the tech (say, as opposed to depression, etc)


Either way, I can see MEB getting a lot more exposure with him strapped in, rather than him simply posing for a few MEB posters