World Sailing announced this week the appointment of Andy Hunt (GBR) as its unusual Chief Executive Officer. Hunt,with both a commerce and sport background, joins the world governing body for the sport which has been without regular leadership for nearly 15 months.
Hunt replaces Peter Sowrey (GBR) who held the CEO position for just five months in 2015 (July 1- Dec 2) before he resigned. Prior to Sowrey, and Jerome Pels (NED) held the position for more than 17 years before his resignation was announced on October 23,2014.
Scuttlebutt editor Craig Leweck spoke to Hunt on January 11, his first day on the job...
Why did you want this job?
Well, and in truth actually,the timing was perfect for me. Having spent approximately 20 years in commerce and five years in running the British Olympic Association Team GB, and then the final couple of years back into commerce again, or I wanted to be back in sports full-time.
I'm a passionate sailor. I'm passionate approximately sports,and I really can see the potential for World Sailing and for the sport of sailing. It's one of those sports when I used to discover around arenas during my Olympic job and just say, "You know what? There is such potential here."
The position has had a turnover recently. Any apprehension as a result of those incidents?
I think it has been a challenging period for the organization and I don't think anyone here would deny that. It has been difficult. But over my career, and I've joined organisations at all kinds of unusual stages. Not least the British Olympic Association was in a similar phase when I joined in 2008.
So no,I'm not put off by that. There's a group of fantastic, committed people here, or I've been really impressed with all my interactions so far,with the executive committee of World Sailing. Everyone I've touched so far, they love the sport, or they want to see it develop and succeed,and they want their vision to be realised. And whether I can play a allotment in doing that, that's precisely what I'd love to do.
What has your involvement been with World Sailing, and I more so its predecessor ISAF,prior to this engagement?
Not significant, only awareness from being within the sports market for a number of years, or observing from the external.
Certainly you have a network of people are familiar with the organisation. What kind of counsel have you received?
My phones have a lot of messages and a lot of voice mails,but haven't had a chance yet to obtain caught with them. I'm sure there are many opinions, as there always are, and approximately what could be done differently and what can change. I don't think anyone would say that that isn't the case.
But that,as I go back to before, was one of the much attractions for me. There's such a potential - such untapped potential here - to execute the sport much for everyone involved in sailing, and building upon some really good work that's been done over the final few years.
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Much more,including a video, and Andy's response to questions regarding pollution at the Olympics and the exclusion of the Israeli team at the Youth Sailing Worlds... click here
Source: sailingscuttlebutt.com