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SAN FRANCISCO, June 29, 2021 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

  -- Diahann Billings-Burford brings deep expertise and leadership experience

     in community building to the rapidly growing social platform for athletes.

Strava, the leading social platform for athletes and the largest sports

community in the world with over 86 million athletes and growing, today

announced the board appointment of Diahann Billings-Burford, CEO of RISE, a

national nonprofit that educates and empowers the sports community to eliminate

racial discrimination, champion social justice and improve race relations.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1553461/Strava_headshotdbb1.jpg  

This key appointment comes at a high-momentum moment for Strava with its

community of over 86 million athletes which continues to grow rapidly, adding

two million athletes every month. With that growth comes a renewed focus on

ensuring the board is structured with highly skilled and strategic business

leaders that will continue to accelerate the growth of its community and

further amplify Strava's position as the largest sports community in the world.

"Diahann is a proficient community builder who has worked across the private,

public and nonprofit sectors. Her abilities and her deep understanding of the

importance of seeking out different points of view and aligning them around a

common framework and objectives we can all get behind will help accelerate

Strava towards fulfilling its mission," said Michael Horvath, Strava CEO.

That mission is directly linked to Strava's commitment to connecting athletes

to what motivates them and helping them find their personal best.

"I was not only impressed with the vision founder and co-founders Mark Gainey

and Michael Horvath outlined, but how open and transparent they were about

wanting to address some of the opportunities they felt existed within Strava.

Being intentional about wanting to build a diverse community of athletes is key

to future subscription growth, but in order to unlock that we have to

collectively invest more time and energy around building those communities

within the current experience. Strava is steadfastly committed to building a

platform that is truly inclusive and I'm ecstatic to be able to bring my

perspective and deep leadership experience to help build this new ecosystem

with them. We are just at the beginning of our journey." said Billings-Burford.

The aforementioned experience that Billings-Burford brings indeed runs deep and

spans the nonprofit, private and public company sectors. A graduate from Yale

University and Columbia School of Law, where she received her J.D., she has

held several prominent leadership positions, including serving as the Executive

Director of Cultural Investments and Vice President of the Time Warner

Foundation at Time Warner. For a number of years, she was also the Chief

Service Officer for the city of New York in the mayor's office working to help

1.3 million New Yorkers connect to service opportunities more easily, and

targeting volunteers to address the city's greatest needs and promote service.

Understanding it takes long-term, intentional action to create lasting change,

Diahann and RISE have brought solutions-oriented programming to the sports

community during an unprecedented time. She has helped deepen partnerships

across more than 35 states and in key regions such as Los Angeles, South

Florida and Minneapolis, and she has developed multi-year partnerships at the

professional and collegiate levels. Diahann has also directed RISE to hold more

than 650 partner engagements since 2020, including hundreds of workshops across

the professional, collegiate and youth sports levels that empower inclusive

leaders and create a more equitable and inclusive sports culture.

About Strava

Strava is the leading social platform for athletes and the largest sports

community in the world, with over 86 million athletes in 195 countries. If you

sweat you're an athlete, and Strava's mobile apps and website connect millions

of active people every day. Strava gives athletes simple, fun ways to stay

motivated and compete against themselves and others without having to be in the

same place at the same time. All athletes belong on Strava no matter where they

live, which sport they love or what device they use. Join the community and

make the most of your sport with a Strava subscription.

SOURCE: Strava

CONTACT: press@strava.com