Buckley: Diversity Is A Competitive Advantage For U.S. SailGP Team
CEO and Co-owner Mike Buckley spoke about diversity in the board room and much more on the Sports Geek podcast…
Published 06/18/2025
Mike Buckley believes there is a competitive advantage to be found in the diversity of the U.S. SailGP Team’s board room and investor group.
Speaking on the Sports Geek podcast with Sean Callanan, Mike discussed a wide range of topics around the business of SailGP, and juggling sailing with being CEO and Co-owner.
As well as Mike, the U.S. SailGP Team board can draw upon the expertise of Marc Lasry, CEO of Avenue Capital Group, former Uber engineer Ryan McKillen, Olympic medalist and skiing legend Lindsey Vonn, and GRAMMY award-winning artist DJ Khaled.
It’s a star-studded line up, backed by a group of investors including actress Issa Rae, NFL stars DeAndre Hopkins, Roquan Smith and Malik Jackson, as well as boxing heavyweight Deontay Wilder and many more at the top of their respective fields.
WIN U.S. SAILGP TEAM KIT SIGNED BY WHOLE TEAM
All of which aids the U.S. SailGP Team, according to Mike.
“I went into a meeting six years ago with McKinsey & Company, and when I left, they said to me, ‘Let’s show the world that diversity is a competitive advantage,’ Mike explained. “I had never heard it put that way before, and I’ve used it ever since.
“Diversity can mean many things – it doesn’t need to be politically charged. The way I think about it is that it’s a competitive advantage to bring together people who think differently, who look different, who are different. That’s how you build a great product.
“If you put your best friends in a room, and everyone thinks the same way and agrees with each other all the time, you’re going to end up with an average product. What Ryan (McKillen) and I have been fortunate to build is a team with a wide range of skills.
“Avenue Capital, for example, owns 15 sports properties. They’ve conducted due diligence on over a thousand teams and leagues worldwide. Through them, we gain valuable knowledge about what’s standard in the market and what’s not – what’s happening in NASCAR, soccer, golf – not just the PGA Tour but also in TGL, which are two very different golf properties. We can learn from both.
Olympic medalist ski racer Lindsey Vonn is a U.S. SailGP Team board member
“We also work with a number of celebrities. Take Issa Rae – what she’s doing in Hollywood, with her production companies and advertising agencies, is impressive. We can learn from her and capitalize on what she’s building. Our board is phenomenal, with people like Lindsey Vonn and DJ Khaled.
“Lindsey has accomplished incredible things on the mountain and around the world – she’s one of the greatest of all time in her sport. We can learn from how she prepared her body and mind for competition. On top of that, she’s played a major role in making skiing popular and mainstream in America.
“Ryan, my partner, wrote the code that runs on every Uber app on our phones. We’ve been lucky to have access to so many brilliant people who think differently. It allows us to push boundaries and do something truly special. It’s been an amazing experience.”
Fully utilizing those connections from across the worlds of sports, entertainment and business is imperative because of SailGP’s $10million spend cap. It’s the same for all 12 teams and helps ensure competitiveness and parity.
“Every dollar matters, and you have to be really careful about how you spend money,” Mike said. “You also have to carefully manage the expectations of the different departments on our team and the people who work for us.
“Everyone wants to spend money in their area, as you’d expect. Our head coach, Evan (Aras), wants to invest in performance and off-season training. Our head of hospitality, Alta (De Leon), wants to invest in making sure our hospitality experience feels premium for our partners.
“You have to find the right balance, and there’s no perfect answer. We need our performance to improve – that’s a fact – but we also need happy and engaged commercial partners. Ideally, we can make progress on both fronts at the same time, but it’s challenging. Sometimes you have to say no, and that can be hard for everyone to accept.
U.S. SailGP Team strategist and CEO Mike Buckley on Good Morning New York prior to the Mubadala New York Sail Grand Prix
“The good thing is, everyone understands we have a cap. We’ve essentially split our business into two parts: sailing, and the marketing and entertainment side. Everyone knows we have a $10 million spending cap, and that’s the reality we all work within.”
In the long run, Mike believes that balance is in the best interests of SailGP and a prosperous, sustainable future for our sport.
He said: “SailGP is predominantly corporately funded and will eventually be 100% corporately funded. There's no expiration date.
“The U.S. SailGP team will go on far beyond my lifetime. And the New York Knicks at the end of the season, they don't shut off. They will start playing at the beginning of next season.
“And that's what SailGP has brought. I think you see that – proof is in the pudding.”
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