Forty Under 40: Stephanie Joukoff

Global Olympics sponsors typically start preparing for the Games at least four years in advance. Intel’s Stephanie Joukoff had just seven months to go from white board to the opening ceremony for the 2018 Winter Games. 

A daunting task? Yes, but an exciting one for a former Stanford synchronized swimmer who attended the Atlanta Games as a teen. “Of course you’re nervous, you want it to be great,” Joukoff said. “But as scary as the challenge might be, I just love having a blank slate and imagining something from scratch.”

As the newest global sponsor, Intel was also one of Pyeongchang’s most active. Under Joukoff’s direction, Intel pushed its products into the conversation with multiple, ambitious technical and promotional projects in Korea. It launched 1,218 “Shooting Star” drones into the air around the opening ceremony for a light show and built a TV spot around it, earning 14 billion global impressions.

Intel also organized the first Olympics-adjacent esports event, convincing the International Olympic Committee to lend the rings to a video game

competition for the first time. Other advances in virtual reality and 5G broadband-enabling hardware were also on display.

Joukoff credits her background in sports for giving her the discipline and focus it takes to pull off such ambitious projects. Breathing techniques she learned on the pool deck now get deployed before big presentations, and the team dynamics still pay off.

“To be surrounded by people who are pushing you and supporting you every day, that’s an amazing thing to grow up in, and when you grow up, you appreciate having that around you,” she said.

Since Pyeongchang, Intel has put Joukoff in charge of marketing strategy and campaigns for all of its major sports partnerships.