TCS is the title sponsor of marathons in Toronto, New York, London, Amsterdam, and Sydney, among a portfolio of 14 global endurance running races. Michelle Taylor, head of Global Sports Sponsorship at TCS, tells iRun why her global technology company puts a premium on your health.
A marathon runner, Michelle Taylor is effusive when talking about the sport we love. Her company, which provides global technology services and consulting, has changed our sport by elevating the world’s best races. TCS is a leader in the growing fields of AI, digital twins, and synthetic biology. Through their apps and sponsorships, innovation and green initiatives, it’s not exaggerating to say that TCS is the most important brand in the world for the running community that’s non-endemic to our sport. For Taylor, a nine time marathon finisher, the qualities that make a runner successful mirror the ones that have made Tata Consultancy Services thrive across 55 countries with a market cap of more than US$200-billion.
“Running shows how much good you can do in the world,” says Taylor, still emotional after returning home from the TCS Sydney Marathon, the most recent TCS race sponsorship—an event most believe is on the cusp of becoming an Abbott World Marathon Major. “We sponsor marathons because we believe in health and wellness and events help us showcase how TCS’ technology can help solve problems and build a better future—together.”
The TCS technology on display at the races, including this weekend’s TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon and next month’s TCS New York City Marathon, is the race app, powered by Tata Consultancy Services, that gets downloaded 2 million times-per-year. The app allows live tracking of runners and pinpoints racers across the course, so family and friends can lend loved ones their support. But that’s not all TCS does for runners. In 2023, TCS created a digital twin of Boston Marathon champion and two-time Olympian Des Linden’s heart. This year, with its Future Athletes project, TCS aims to help a diverse group runners train smarter and safer by creating digital twins of their hearts. The data on nutrition, medicine, sleep and recovery can be shared with us all as TCS uses the information to enhance knowledge and improve global health.
“We believe technology can help everybody live longer, healthier and fitter lives,” Taylor says. “We’re studying the heart through the lens of sport, but the implications are much broader. At TCS, we use sport for innovative new learnings that will impact people—clients, runners, employees, the whole world at large—across a much wider, diverse space.”
TCS is forward-thinking, so it’s no surprise that schools are where the company also parks its vast resources. Taylor says that at TCS, the company recognizes and celebrates our most influential and inspirational agents of change—teachers—and the communities that support them. To that end, TCS is heavily invested in the education system of their communities: enhancing science, technology, engineering and math programs. Leanne Loney, a teacher with 22 years experience in the Ontario and Quebec school systems, says she uses the TCS’ flagship digital innovation and career readiness program, goIT, to provide a structured environment for K-12 students to imagine and design tech-based solutions to global problems and introduce them to careers in the STEM fields.
Through compelling design workshops and custom mentorship experiences, goIT engages students around the globe by challenging stereotypes and inspiring our future leaders to pursue careers in STEM and the computer sciences.
To that end, Leanne Loney is a fan.
“I use the TCS goIT challenges to incorporate technology in the classroom and tackle global issues, like sustainability, and the program has opened the world up to my students,” says Loney, who’s intricately connected to the TCS ecosystem. Loney doesn’t only teach her students. She also inspires them through her marathon running, which TCS also supports. As part of Team TCS Teachers, Loney was awarded a bib by the company to run the 2023 TCS New York City Marathon with fifty other teachers from around the world. “Running helps me feel good, clears my mind, and gives me energy so I’m ready to inspire my kids,” says Loney, attempting marathon number forty-nine at the TCS Toronto Waterfront Marathon this month. “My students—even my own children—see my marathon running and realize it’s something that they also can do. Everyone who knows me sees how running makes me feel so fulfilled.”
Michelle Taylor also feels fulfilled, and the lifelong runner says she’s working her dream job. Holding the tape at the TCS Sydney Marathon, Taylor watched as the last runners crossed the finish line before the Sydney Opera House, expressions of hope and pride across their faces.
“At TCS, we have a long future ahead of us in the running space and we know that technology will continue to evolve the sport and make it more inclusive and accessible,” Taylor says. “Sydney was just the most emotional, wonderful experience and it solidifies how the beautiful sport of running is a place of shared values at TCS.”
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