Alejandra Mato's name may not be as well known as that of Russell Coutts, Larry Ellison or the big stars who compete at more than 100 kilometers per hour aboard the F50s, but if you have to look for one of the people who have been behind the construction of SailGP since its first steps, her name inevitably appears. Mato is from Madrid, but Valencia has been her city for more than two decades, and it was precisely here where she began a professional career that would end up leading her to be at the core of one of the most ambitious sports projects in the world. Its entry into the America's Cup universe came through BMW Oracle. There he worked in communications and marketing and met Larry Ellison. And, above all, he met Russell Coutts. The New Zealander, one of the biggest names in world sailing, would end up becoming a determining figure in his professional career. Mato gained Coutts' trust through work, management skills and, above all, an extraordinary ability to turn the ideas of one of the great visionaries of the sport of sailing into reality. When Coutts took on the challenge of defending the Copa América with Oracle, Mato was at his side. Also during the gestation of the RC44 class, another of the projects born around the New Zealand sailor. And when Oracle lost the Copa América in Bermuda in 2017 and Ellison and Coutts decided to change the rules of the game, Mato was there again. “I must have done something right to stay here,” he always explains with a smile. The phrase has a lot of irony, because his career speaks for itself. SailGP was practically born as an adventure. "We started with seven people at a table, in a room," he remembers. From that small structure came a league that today has 13 teams, 13 F50 and an international calendar that takes the show to all over the world. She is the Chief of Staff of the Rolex SailGP circuit. In practice, it is much more. He is one of Coutts' most trusted people and is part of the small management group that has been shaping the competition. It is number two in a league that aims to stop being just a sailing championship and become one of the great world sporting events. “I work closely with Coutts a lot and I hope that my opinion has some weight,” he explains. A modesty that contrasts with the role he has played all these years. Their philosophy fits perfectly with that of SailGP. Talk about sailing without talking about sailing. Of speed, entertainment, spectacle and emotion. To bring the sport closer to an audience that may have never sat in front of a traditional regatta. From that table with seven people to a global organization that aspires to be among the 25 most important sporting events in the world by 2030. In between, seven years of work, hundreds of flights, decisions, problems and solutions. Mato has been in almost all of those chapters. Without making too much noise, but always close to the operations center. Because behind the F50 there are also people who make everything fly. And Alejandra Mato is one of them.