Between the Races: Kevin Allen

The employment situation out there is pretty dire, but Kevin Allen may just have the dream job. The young American is working in Pirelli’s Italian headquarters, attending races all over the world, while serving as the tire company’s international PR and media communications manager. We ran into Allen while attending the pre-season World Superbike test in Portimao, Portugal, earlier this winter, so we asked him for an update on how the good life was going.

RRX: How’s life in Italy so far?
Kevin Allen: I would say that at first it was an eye-opener in the sense that the convenience of everything was completely different than the States. It takes so much more time to work things through, especially when you’re dealing with different languages. And more so than living in Italy is also working with the World Superbike series because you’re not just working with one language, but many—in some cases German, French, Spanish, Italian. At first you have to sort out who you’re speaking to and sort through the confusion, and then you become more comfortable with the larger community of this circuit and also just in general, being in Europe.

Are you coming along with the language?
It surprised me in a sense: Now that I’ve gone through these first five months of being in Italy, it surprised me how quickly you can learn a language if you’re pushing yourself—not just immerse, but pushing yourself. For the first three months, I took classes five days a week, and now I’m down to three days a week, and then I’ll go to one day a week. It’s in the evenings and sometimes in the mornings, depending on the schedule.

Are you enjoying the lifestyle away from work?
It’s a little bit slower-paced life, and when I say that I mean that Italians in general work really hard, but then it’s like once work is done, it’s done, and then you enjoy what experiences you have and who you’re with. There’s sort of a togetherness that happens after you come together as a team. You can go for an aperitivo, which is what they call basically a happy hour, and just talk about news of the day, life in general, where you want last weekend.

What types of things are you working on?
I’m responsible for racing and product communications for the Pirelli brand and our sister brand, Metzler—to communicate the new products we have coming out, but also the activities we have in the racing sport.

What type of company is Pirelli to work for?
Pirelli is a pretty large company, but the motorcycle division is really smaller than I originally thought. We work together very closely in different markets, and the people that I’ve gotten to know are all really high-level in terms of intelligence, approach to the market, culture, background—really, really strong characters. This is something that really helps when you’re in that big sea—when you’re in a new country—is to know that the people around you are really solid. They’re just a great team, an international team. We work more globally than a lot of companies I’ve worked with in the past.

Will you have the chance to hit lots of races?
With the job that I hold, attending races is important, to know the riders and teams, the tracks, the activities that we’re participating in worldwide—not just on the road racing side, but also motocross, and enduro, and communicating these activities. Not just results and “here’s what Pirelli has accomplished,” but also why we participate. We participate because it’s part of the Pirelli name, it’s part of the Pirelli passion for performance and racing and being at that high level.

What are your plans down the road?
Well, the position was offered for two years, to be in Italy, and after that, it could be that one more year is needed to accomplish the goals that we agreed to together; it may take three years. After that, maybe I return to the States, and maybe there’s opportunities in other countries. But I’m really open to whatever comes my way.