Drexel University Athletics
Dragon Dispatches: A Day in London with Drexel Crew
6/17/2014 10:20:00 AM | Women's Rowing
By: Dr. Eric Zillmer, Director of Athletics
On Monday, June 16, the Drexel women's crew team travelled to London for the day. London is a lively, bustling, world-class city with a combination of the best of what Philadelphia, Boston, and New York City have to offer. Only an hour from Henley-on-the-Thames, our team spent the afternoon and evening in London after an early 7 a.m. practice on the Thames.
Our first stop was for lunch at the Principal Offices of Aberdeen Asset Management at Bow Bells House on Bread Street in London. Aberdeen is the title sponsor of the Dad Vail Regatta and has become a great partner of the rowing community in Philadelphia. The beauty about Henley is that our team is not only representing Drexel University, but also the USA. Since we row out of Boathouse Row and think of the Dad Vail as our most important race, we also feel that we represent Bachelors Barge Club, the Schuylkill Navy, the Dad Vail Regatta, as well as Aberdeen. As a result we have forged friendships with all of our partners and it was an extraordinary invitation from Aberdeen to our team to visit their offices in London.
At Aberdeen we spend time with their senior executive staff learning about the world of international finance and touring their facility. This was particularly interesting for our business and international study majors among the team. Anyone who has ever travelled internationally knows how soothing it is to visit friends, and thus our Aberdeen visit was both enjoyable and informative. I want to thank Jill Maxwell, Sponsorship and Events Manager at Aberdeen, who set up the visit state side as well as Samantha Walker and her team who handled the logistics at the London office.
Drexel crew team at Aberdeen
Drexel crew team at Aberdeen
Next the team did some sightseeing, including the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, and the London Eye. While we were taking pictures of all of the sights, other tourists were taking pictures of us. Why? Because our team was a sight to behold and everyone stopped us to ask who we were and where we were from.
The Tower of London is a significant place for me. My colleague and friend Dr. Bill Culbertson and I developed a neuropsychological test that measures planning, pre-planning and problem solving. The procedure has three different lengths of wooden pegs on which one has to assemble different colored beads according to a model. Because the procedure was originally developed in England and because the three different pegs look a bit like the different lengths of the towers of the Tower of London the test is called the Tower of London DX (Drexel University). The Tower of London test is in its second edition and is used internationally, including by pharmaceutical companies that measure medication outcome on cognition. By the way… this is a true story!
Zillmer's Tower of London
Buckingham Palace
Big Ben
In the evening, we all met at the Institute of Directors (IOD) club for a Drexel alumni dinner. The IOD, located near Trafalgar's Square, is a UK-based organization, founded in 1903 and incorporated by royal charter in 1906 to support, represent and set standards for company directors. It occupies premises on Pall Mall, London and was built in 1826-28 to the designs of John Nash. The IOD is located in a historic building and it was a special perk to have visited and dined in a British private club.
Sowmi Krishnamurthy, Drexel College of Business Administration alumnus, is a member of the IOD. An experienced oil and gas executive and director of ExxonMobil Marine Ltd., he was our host for the night. It was great fun to connect with the Drexel alumni living in London. All of the alumni as well as our team had a chance to introduce themselves and the evening was filled with spirited and lively discussion. The alumni were extremely interested in all of the amazing developments happening at Drexel, and they took great pride in sitting and talking with our rowing team.
A great and pleasant personal surprise was to reconnect with Dr. Ahson Umar, who I last saw when I was a faculty member of his dissertation defense committee in economics at Drexel in 1991! Ahson now has his own accounting consulting business in London and also teaches at a local university. I was very proud to see what Ahson has achieved with his Drexel doctoral degree and we made plans to get together for dinner the next day.
Drexel alum Sowmi Krishnamurthy welcoming everyone to London's Institute of Directors
Tonight's dinner at the IOD reminded me why sports can positively influence a university like ours. Athletics celebrate a competitive spirit and can create an international focus for alumni to rally around resulting in a very special evening that our team and our alumni will not soon forget.
While the team headed back to Henley, I was walking back to my hotel to watch World Cup soccer from Brazil on the 11 by 17 inch TV the hotel provided. The USA – Ghana game was scheduled to begin at 11 p.m. local time. GGOOOAAAALL!! I screamed and woke up the rest of the hotel, as team USA won 2-1, a huge step forward for American soccer.
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