If you look at Erin Bailey’s LinkedIn profile, you’ll see the sort of photo that stops most people from scrolling: Bailey, smiling, waving, and triumphantly carrying the Olympic torch near Italy’s Lake Garda. At first glance, it’s an image that prompts curiosity about the life she leads.
Bailey, a Market Account Manager for the Olympic & Paralympic partnership for global insurance and financial services company Allianz, holds a key role. As the partnership covers 206 national Olympic committees, she acts as the bridge between the holding group and local markets, ensuring that each local market understands how to activate the Olympic partnership in a way that respects the protected intellectual property of the Games.
“It is a symbiotic relationship,” she explains. “We create the value in this partnership by helping our entities capitalize on the opportunity.”
The significance of these sporting events on the world stage is not lost on her. “Being able to say that you work on the Olympics is such a privilege. I feel it every time I say it. It’s incredible to be a part of something that’s so rewarding.”
But not everyone involved in helping produce and promote the Games has the honor of carrying the torch. So how did it come to pass?
It came through what she admits was an “insanely lucky opportunity.” While her team usually manages the perks for others, an internal raffle for the Olympic torch relay was opened to everyone in the company. Bailey entered, thinking nothing of it.
She won.
Bailey carrying the Olympic Torch in Italy. This moment, known as the “Torch Kiss,” captures the passing of the Olympic Flame from one torch to another as it continues its journey.
Carrying the Olympic torch in Italy ahead of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games was a full-circle moment. It was a physical representation of the “global movement” she had been a part of since her days in Korea. For a few minutes, she wasn’t just a corporate manager. She was a link in a chain that stretched back thousands of years.
And in some way, Bailey had to travel the world herself first to get there.
Early Teaching and Learning
After graduating from Rhodes College in Memphis, TN, Bailey knew she wasn’t ready to settle into a traditional entry-level role. Wanting to see the world, she applied for a job teaching English in South Korea. At the time, she viewed it as a gap year, a chance to live in a trendy, fast-paced culture that would be entirely foreign from anything she knew.
The reality proved to be a masterclass in resilience. In 2017, she found herself teaching a room full of energetic 6-year-olds, which was rewarding but understandably exhausting. She realized quickly that while she loved the international experience, teaching was not her lifelong calling.
“Living by myself, adjusting to a new culture, a new place, and a whole new group of people, was very rewarding and full of self-development,” says Bailey. “But also, I learned that some things are not for me. I was really thankful to find what I call an exit strategy because there were other teachers that had been there for years and years because they don’t know what else to do,” she explains. “So glad that I found McIntire and was very grateful to have a way forward.”
McIntire’s M.S. in Global Commerce (MSGC) offered exactly what Bailey craved: a holistically minded business education that would keep doors open across the globe. She took her GMAT, secured her spot, and prepared to trade her classroom in Korea for a three-continent academic journey that would take her through Charlottesville, China, and Spain.
The MSGC program exposed her to companies as varied as refrigerator manufacturers in China and the Washington Nationals baseball team in DC, as she and her cohort explored invaluable experiences, studying business models and cultural norms through the live-and-learn program.
It also gave Bailey the global fluency she needed for her next big challenge: the Allianz Graduate Program.
Bailey and MSGC classmates in Washington, DC, and Iceland
The Battle Royale in Paris
As her time at McIntire drew to a close, Bailey set her sights on a prestigious rotational traineeship at Allianz Partners, a subsidiary of the insurance and financial services giant. After hearing about it from MSGC alum Caroline Wimbleton, who was in the Allianz program, she applied. The recruitment process was daunting to say the least, with a small number of finalists chosen from thousands of interested people.
After several rounds of interviews, right before graduating from MSGC, she was flown to Paris for what she describes as a “whirlwind interview process” with multiple rounds, concluding in a “battle royale.” Twenty finalists from around the world competed for just five spots.
The day consisted of individual assessments, group projects, and high-pressure presentations. Bailey’s ability to remain calm and communicate effectively under pressure, a skill honed during her time in Korea and through the MSGC’s intense curriculum, set her apart.
She landed a spot, prepared to move to Paris on Jan. 1, 2020, and, like the rest of us, had no idea that the world was about to change.
Crisis Management in 200 Square Feet
Within weeks of starting her new life in France, the global pandemic arrived. For a young American living alone in a 235-square-foot apartment, the City of Light suddenly felt very small. France’s lockdown was strict. Bailey needed what she calls a “hall pass” just to leave her building for a short walk or groceries, and within 5 kilometers of her address.
Professionally, the timing was just as intense. During her second rotation at Allianz, she was placed in the Crisis Management and Business Continuity department. In the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic, this team was the epicenter of the company’s survival strategy.
“The team was desperate for people,” Bailey notes. “Everything felt urgent, which is exciting but also very tiring.”
She spent six months helping manage the return-to-office strategy for a company of 35,000 employees. It was a baptism by fire that taught her more about corporate resilience and risk than any textbook ever could. After a brief rotation back in her hometown of Richmond, VA, to recharge, she was ready for her final rotation. This time, she wanted to be in Munich.
The Olympic Movement
It was then, in 2021, when Allianz launched its global partnership with the Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Bailey joined the team in Munich just as the world was preparing for the Tokyo Games. She found herself in a role that blended her marketing background with a high-level international focus.
Today, Bailey is a “loyalist” for Allianz and based in Munich. She has traded the tiny apartments of Paris for a city she finds incredibly livable. She is even engaged to a German local, further cementing her ties to the region, where she enjoys its outdoor culture and playing club soccer.
Bailey and her fiancé, Tobi
As she reflects on the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games and looks forward to the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games, she is navigating the next stage of her career. After five years with the team, her role has evolved from operational support to strategic rights activation. She is now a veteran of the Olympic and Paralympic Movements, a term she prefers over “the Games.”
“The Games are just a few weeks every few years,” she says. “But the Movement is continuous. It is just like the athletes. The work doesn’t stop when the cameras are off.”
Bailey’s story is a reminder that a global career is much more than the destination; rather, it’s about getting immersed in the significant moments that come from taking uncommon approaches to solve problems when facing challenges around the world.
“I really believe in the Movements and the Olympic and Paralympic spirit so strongly,” Bailey says emphatically. “And I also believe in what I’m doing, and I like doing it.”
