|
|
Home  Community Alumni and Reunions
Greg Choat Alumni 1986
 When I left Kristin in 1986, like most teenagers, I had no idea what the world had in store for me. Now, as I approach 40, I sit in my office in mid-town Manhattan at one of the most respected and recognized brands in sports, and wonder how I ended up here.
I'd always had a passion for photography and many of my friends from Kristin became used to seeing me carry my camera everywhere, capturing moments of our youth – sometimes pretty, sometimes not.
Professionally, I paid my dues working in various jobs in the photographic and film industry – developing my craft, acquiring technical expertise and learning what makes a great photo and what it takes to make a great photo.
As I looked for more challenges in my field I decided to leave NZ. I wanted to be where the imaging industry was at it's most vibrant. My search lead to New York, the center of the universe – ask any New Yorker! – and pretty much the heart of the publishing world.
It wasn’t a direct route to the big time. After running my own photographic production company in NZ, specializing in commercial advertising jobs for local and international photographers, I landed a job as a photo manager at the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It was a great experience and a springboard to bigger things for me. I moved on to a similar position at the Salt Lake 2002 Olympics and again enjoyed the challenge of working on large-scale photographic logistics.
In Salt Lake I met my wife-to-be and soon we were traveling around the US looking for work and deciding where would be a nice place to live. All roads led to New York, and there I was hired as a senior photo editor at Corbis, the largest photo agency in the world, privately owned by Bill Gates.
At Corbis, I assigned and edited some of the leading photographers in the world. Sports and news were our focus. I edited photographers who shot celebrity portraits, major sporting events and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Unexpectedly one day I received a phone call from the photo director at Sports Illustrated. He’d heard about me and wanted to offer me a job.
Today I’m the Deputy Photo Editor for SI. I manage a staff of 15 photographers based in the US and Europe. I work with photographers whose images I admired long before I joined the company. Sports Illustrated is one of 144 publications owned by Time Warner, one of the largest companies in the US. In addition to Sports Illustrated, I also work with SI.com, SI for Kids, SI Presents, Golf Magazine and Golf.com.
A large part of my job is spent on photo logistics. I attend the major sporting events in the US and internationally, that we have an interest in – the Olympics, the Super Bowl and the PGA Tour, to name a few. The hardest thing for me has been to embrace the major US sports. Believe me, if I could get rugby, cricket and sailing into Sports Illustrated, I would. One of my proudest moments was being on the 18th green as Michael Campbell holed-out in the US Open.
Although I’ve developed skills and experience along the way, the Kiwi mentality of thinking outside the box has been one of my most valuable assets. My bosses don’t know what No. 8 fencing wire is, but they laugh every time I tell them that’s how I fixed a problem.
If there is one piece of advice I’d pass along, it’s to treat others as you would like them to treat you. This was a lesson I learned during my time at Kristin and it has served me well.
|
|
Tickets, Orders & Registration
|
Learn about the Kristin brand and our fundraising campaigns
