It’s not often the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce announces that it is adding an Olympic gold medalist to its staff.

But on Monday, Oct. 16, the Greensboro Chamber announced that Joey Cheek will be the new executive vice president of entrepreneurship.

Cheek, a native of Greensboro and graduate of Dudley High School, won the gold in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, in the 500-meter ice speed skating event.  He also won the silver in the 1,000-meter event.

Folks who have been around for a while may remember Cheek zipping around Greensboro on wheeled skates before he made the switch to ice. In fact, Cheek even got in trouble with the Greensboro Parks and Recreation Department for skating too fast at some city facilities.

In what may be considered more relevant to his current job, Cheek has a degree from Princeton in economics and has spent the last 10 years in the tech and startup worlds building technology for Fortune 100 companies and launching a venture-backed company.

Cheek returned to Greensboro in 2021 to with his wife and son. Cheek said, “We knew we needed to be somewhere incredible to raise him. Being back in Greensboro continues to amaze us with the quality of life. Life here beats Denver, LA, NYC, any of the places we’ve lived before.”

Greensboro Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Brent Christiansen said in the press release, “Joey brings unique and real-world experience to our entrepreneurship efforts. As we continue to work with our community’s colleges and universities to keep their incredible talent and technology in Greensboro, we believe Joey’s experience and enthusiasm will elevate our programming and build an infrastructure to support our thriving startup community.”

Cheek said, “Starting companies is harder than anything I’ve ever done – including winning the Olympics – and I have the scars to prove it. If the Greensboro Chamber and the programming provided by Launch Greensboro can help aid entrepreneurs on that journey, then we’ve succeeded.”

 

About