Temporary Chair for IOC Marketing Meeting

(ATR) A freshman IOC member will step in to lead this week’s meeting of the IOC Marketing Commission.

Jiri Kejval, elected to the IOC less than one year ago, will take over for Tsunekazu Takeda for the commission meeting January 19 in Lausanne.

While he may be an IOC novitiate, the Czech businessman has been a member of the Marketing Commission since 2015 through his presidency of the NOC.

Takeda announced earlier this week that he would not be able to travel from Japan to chair the meeting, citing personal reasons.

Takeda, IOC member since 2012, is under inquiry by prosecutors in France in connection with allegations of IOC vote buying for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic bid. Takeda has denied any wrongdoing and says he is cooperating with the inquiry. Last week he appeared before the IOC Ethics Commission via a video conference. The commission has not announced any action against Takeda.

Kejval was elected to the IOC at the 2018 Session in PyeongChang. He was originally nominated in 2017 for a seat tied to his leadership of the Czech NOC. Subsequently changed to a regular IOC membership, Kejval, 41, can now serve until age 70.

Kejval has a civil engineering degree and is the founder and CEO of an office furniture company as well as a real estate firm with interests in Europe and North America.

Kejval is one of seven IOC members on the 24-member commission. William Blick, Rene Fasel, Richard Carrion, Karl Stoss, James Tomkins and Richard Pound are among the others.

His designation by IOC President Thomas Bach to lead the commission meeting, albeit on a substitute basis, over more senior IOC members, could be seen as an indicator of Kejval’s potentially long future on the IOC.

Appearing for the first time on the IOC roster for the Marketing Commission is the name of Susanne Lyons, the new chair of the U.S.Olympic Committee. She took over January 1 from Larry Probst, who did have a seat on the commission.

Reported by Ed Hula.