
Eri Coles
Marketing Manager
Swimming has been my passion for almost all my life. My grandfather was an excellent swimmer who was going to represent Japan in the Olympics, but he never made it because of the war. Following in his footsteps, I started swimming when I was 4 years old and swam competitively at regional and national levels in Japan and the USA.
After graduating from Boston University with a BSc in Business Management, I worked for Nokia in Japan and the UK for over 10 years, developing and marketing industry-shaping mobile phones at country, regional and global levels. In my Nokia Career, I worked in sales, product management, event management, marketing strategy development and marketing campaign management – just to name a few. I was fortunate to get involved with the majority of marketing disciplines in the large global blue-chip company which provided me with the wealth of knowledge and experience. Since leaving Nokia in 2012, I have worked with start-ups, small and medium size companies in various industry sectors.
The principle of marketing is the same for me no matter what the size of the company is – always putting our customers in the heart of what we do.
A third of UK children are unable to swim when leaving the primary school which is a shocking statistic. Swimming is a vital life-skill that everyone should learn. Studies show that swimming regularly improves academic achievements as well as physical and mental health. Together with our coaches, I want to help the nation to be passionate about swimming for life – one swimmer at a time.