(ATR) The new head of the Annecy 2018 Winter Olympic bid tells Around the Rings he’s ready to lead the way in the closing months of the campaign for the Games.
"We have a new dynamic strategy to take the bid forward," says Charles Beigbeder in a telephone interview with ATR on Wednesday.
Beigbeder, 46, was named earlier this month as CEO for the Annecy bid after Edgar Grospiron resigned in December after failing to win approval for more public funding for the bid.
Known as an entrepreneur, a title he used to describe himself, Beigbeder says he will seek more financial support for the bid from the private sector. He is chairman of Poweo, a power company he formed in 2002 to compete with state monopoly EDF.
Beigbeder says he no longer holds executive positions with the companies he started, giving him the time he needs to run the Annecy bid.
"I am not alone", he says. "I have Olympic champions as vice presidents of the bid (Jean Pierre Vidal and Pernilla Wiberg)," adding that the formation of a task force will help pitch the Annecy bid internationally.
Headed by IOC member Guy Drut, Beigbeder says the task force will become active after the upcoming visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission for 2018, set for Feb. 7 to 12.
Annecy will be the first of the 2018 bids to be visited by the IOC commission. PyeongChang will follow Feb. 14 to 19 and Munich from March 1 to 4.
Also announced with Beigbeder’s appointment was the selection of Pierre Mirabaud as director generalof the bid. Mirabaud has been a regional government prefect, experience which Beigbeder says is needed by the bid.
While he is a winter sports enthusiast, Beigbeder says he had no idea one month ago that he would have anything to do with the bid from the Haute-Savoie where he owns a small chalet.
He says he was contacted at the start of the new year as one of several candidates considered for the CEO posting – and reportedly not the first choice.
"I was seduced," he says about the results of his research into the bid when he was asked to consider the job.
"I think it comprises exceptional qualities. The more I dug into the file, it seems the sites for the bid were designed to greet the world," he says.
"Let’s take the challenge," he says was his response when asked to take the job.
He met this week with President Nicholas Sarkozy, who Beigbeder says "wants to do more for the bid". He says his phone has been ringing with calls of support from others since his appointment was announced.
Beigbeder admits he joins the bid at a late stage, with the IOC vote for 2018 less than six months away and the IOC commission visit in three weeks. He says he’s studying for the February visit, including a review of the files from rivals Munich and PyeongChang.
He says he understands what Annecy faces.
"I want to go from underdog to top dog," says Beigbeder.
Written by Ed Hula.
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