Full-time CEO to oversee return of Volvo Ocean Race

Date Published: 07-Apr-2011

By Dara Bradley

Preparations for the Volvo Ocean Race 2012 Galway stopover took a leap forward this week with the organising committee, Let’s Do It Galway, launching a recruitment drive for the position of Chief Executive Officer.

The round the world race begins in Alicante, Spain this October and the grand finale will take place in Galway in July of next year.

The Irish organisers of the biggest sailing event in the world, which was such a huge success when it arrived in Galway in 2009, have begun recruiting for a CEO.

Chairman of Let’s Do It Galway, John Killeen, confirmed to the Galway City Tribune that the CEO post will be a paid position with a contract of between 12 and 18 months.

Mr Killeen, an unpaid volunteer with the organisation was one of the men responsible for attracting the event to Galway initially, said he hopes the appointment of the CEO will be made by mid-May.

“We are 15 months out from the Galway stopover of the race and this is the next step in our preparations. We will be putting a full professional team together in the coming months and the first step is the appointment of a CEO. Up to now the people working on it have all been part-time and voluntary, but we are now putting a professional team in place.

“The CEO will be appointed by mid-May and then we will be hiring a number of other professionals to work with the CEO,” said Mr Killeen.

Up to 50,000 corporate guests are expected to come to Galway for the end of the gruelling event, with 600,000 individual visitors to the Race Village set to match the corresponding figure for the 2009 stopover. The event could raise up to €80m for the local economy.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.