MOTORSPORT: V8 Supercars on hunt for CEO
After barely a year in the chair, V8 Supercar CEO's been assigned to international duties -- and the search is on for the third boss in three years…The organisation’s events general manager Shane Howard will become acting chief executive again while it does its global search to fill the position, which reputedly pays $750,000 a year. Howard acted in the position after the departure of previous CEO, Cameron Levick, who left in mid-2009 after having only started in late 2008.
V8SA announced today what it called “senior management changes to support the championship’s ongoing international expansion”. It said the changes came after a review of operations and growth strategies as part of the recent sale of 60 per cent of the business to private equity company Archer Capital.
“Martin Whitaker will take on the newly-created role of international director to make full use of his international motorsport relationships,” V8SA said.
“He will progress V8 Supercars’ plans to stage up to six annual events outside of Australia and New Zealand by 2015.”
Whitaker was appointed CEO early last year and took up the position mid-2010. He had run the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix for seven years and previously worked with world motorsport’s governing body the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One Management (FOM), Ford and McLaren.
A former Shell executive, Wayne Cattach, was the chief executive of V8SA for a decade alongside chairman Tony Cochrane in the transformation of Australian touring car racing.
Levick -- who had been an executive with Vodafone and was described as having had “a distinguished career with premium international drinks company, Diageo” -- succeeded Cattach in late 2008.
Category supremo Cochrane said at the time that Levick was “the outstanding candidate amongst a tremendously impressive field of (60) applicants from both Australia and internationally”.
“The board was overwhelming in the decision to choose Cameron from a final short-list of 10 people,” he said, adding that the appointment was a “great day for the sport to be led by a young man with such vast talent and vision”.
By the middle of the 2009 season Levick was gone and another global search began for a CEO. Now another starts for the same position.
The other move announced by V8SA today was the appointment of Peter Trimble to a new position of systems and finance general manager. It described Trimble as having “deep experience in driving organisational change”.
“His [Trimble’s] most recent role was with ABC Learning, which he joined to lead the turnaround and regeneration of that business,” it said.
Picture courtesy V8 Supercars
Read the latest news and reviews on your mobile, iPhone or PDA at carsales' mobile site...
Tags
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.
