Judges

Sir Craig Reedie
Member International Olympic Committee and a member of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2016 Olympic Games
www.olympic.org

Craig Reedie has enjoyed a long career in Sports Administration. A former President of the Scottish Badminton Union and the International Badminton Federation he was responsible for the admission of his sport to the Olympic Programme in 1985. In 1992 he became Chairman of the British Olympic Association and led the organisation through the Olympic Games of Atlanta, Sydney and Athens and the Olympic Winter Games of Lillehammer, Nagano and Salt Lake City. He was a leading member of the London 2012 Bid Team which won the right to host the Olympic Games in London and is now a Non-Executive Director of the London Organising Committee. He became a member of the International Olympic Committee in 1994. He is also Chairman of the Finance and Administration Committee and a member of the Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency. He became a Board member of the Olympic Lottery Distributor in 2006. Educated at Stirling High School and Glasgow University he has also held other sports appointments including membership and Deputy Chairmanship of UK Sport. For many years he was Senior Partner in the Glasgow Firm of Financial Advisers D.L.Bloomer and Partners.

Greg Thomas
Thomas Sports Solutions

A media and communication professional who runs his own sports media business in Sydney, Australia. Thomas Sports Solutions specialises in event media operations, media relations and management, issues management and policy formation. Until recently he was the Head of Communications for the International Rugby Board based in Dublin, Ireland, with global responsibility for all media, PR, communications and event programmes. He is presently consulting to Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand on the delivery of the tournament media programme and was Head of Media for the 2009 British & Irish Lions tour to South Africa. He was the senior media advisor to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Organising Committee, where he was also the Venue Media Manager for Aquatics, and Media and Broadcast Manager Aquatics for the 2000 Paralympic Games. Following the Games he took up the role of Deputy Managing Director of the Australian Tourism Export Council before relocating to Dublin in 2004 to take up his role with the International Rugby Board. Prior to the Sydney Games he was Venue Media Manager for several World Cup sporting events in Sydney and 2001 he was Media Manager for the Aquatics and Athletics venues at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane

Nick Bitel 
Chairman
Max Bitel Greene 
CEO
London Marathon

Nick Bitel has been the Chief Executive of the London Marathon, the world's most successful city centre marathon, since 1995.  The Event has grown substantially in that time and now sees over 36,000 finishers each year who between them raise a world record £50.2 million per annum.
 
Nick is also senior partner in the niche sports law firm, Max Bitel Greene and his major event clients include The Wimbledon Championships and the Ryder Cup.  Nick is a Board Member of the Olympic Park Legacy Company and member of the Events for London Steering Group. Previously he was a board member of UK Sport and Chair of its Major Events Panel.
 

Patrick Furlong 
Director
PTFI Media

Patrick Furlong has more than 40 years of broadcast experience, focussing almost exclusively on sport since 1992. In 1996, after a 28 year career with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, he moved to Malaysia to work for the ABU, as Head of Sport, and has worked exclusively in Asia ever since. Whilst with the ABU he was also the ABU’s Head of Production Operations for the 1998 FIFA World Cup, 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics, and the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

PTFI Media was formed in 2002, after Patrick had finished his contract with HBS as COO for the Host Broadcast of the 2002 FIFA World Cup. As PTFI Media, Patrick was broadcast consultant to the Organizing Committees for the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the Moroccan bid for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In that time he also worked on the Master Plan for the 2006 Asian Games. In 2004 he was appointed as Director Broadcast and Media Services for the Doha Asian Games, and is recognised as the driving force behind the hugely successful Host Broadcast coverage and Media Services delivery of those Games.

In October of this year he completed a three year consultancy for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, and recently helped the Qatar 2022 World Cup Bid Committee formulate the broadcasting component of its Bid Document.

Since 2007, PTFI Media has also provided consultancy services to the Olympic Council of Asia the Organizing Committees for the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, the 2010 Asian Beach Games in Muscat and the 2011 Asian Winter Games in Almaty and Astana.

Nigel Rushman
Chairman
Rushmans Ltd

Nigel's experience spans 25 years in major international sports and events. He has developed and implemented innovative programmes for over 500 events in 30 countries including Asian Games, Euro ’96, three Rugby World Cups and three Cricket World Cups amongst numerous other projects.

Nigel is a well-known figure in the international business of sport. A founding partner of industry publication SportBusiness International, Nigel prides himself on his hands-on experience of successful event delivery.

Frequently invited at a senior level to present his experience and thoughts referring to event management, scalability, temporary facilities, security, knowledge and experience transfer to International Sports Conferences and gatherings of the IOC, FIFA, GAISF and others.

In addition to his role as Chairman of Rushmans and being hands-on with all Rushmans projects and clients, Nigel was contracted as Event Director of the ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 with the responsibility of implementing the Event Management, Security, Media Management, Accreditation and Volunteer Programmes for the Cricket World Cup across the nine participating countries in the Caribbean region.

Jim Brown
Director / Competitions Division
FIFA - Fédération Internationale de Football Association

 
Jim began working with FIFA as the Director of Competitions in 2003 with the responsibility for all of FIFA's 11 football events - including the FIFA World CupTM, Qualifiers for the FIFA World CupTM and Olympic Football Tournaments, the FIFA Women's World Cup, the FIFA Club World Cup, and the age group competitions.  He also oversees the technical departments of Refereeing and the Technical Study Group.  Prior to joining FIFA, Jim worked on a series of major international events, beginning with the 1994 FIFA World Cup as Director of Operations, followed by the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, as a venue manager, the 2000 Sydney Games as the Venue Manager of the Olympic Stadium, and finally with the Salt Lake 2002 as Managing Director of Venue Management.  In addition, he had a two-season stint with Major League Soccer from 1996 to 1998 as the Director of Operations.
 
An American citizen, Jim was born in Bolivia and has lived overseas most of his life.  He and his family have now been in Zurich for over 5 years and continue to enjoy the outdoors, sports (especially Football, of course) and international travel.

Greg Bowman
Managing and Creative Director
Great Big Events

Greg Bowman is recognised by the international sporting community as a leader in Sport Presentation. He led the Sport Presentation team for the Beijing Olympic Games, adding the 2008 Olympic instalment to his experience at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Recognising his position as the pioneer in the field of Sport Presentation, Greg’s unique approach and talents have been called upon by international sporting federations and organising committees for many of the world’s most important sporting events. Drawing on his unique combination of talents in music, education and sport, Greg Bowman founded Great Big Events, and coined the term ‘Sport Presentation’ for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, pioneering the industry into an integral component of all international sporting events. In the current international sporting landscape, the scope, expertise and quality produced under the leadership of Greg Bowman is truly unrivalled.

Ken Schofield

Former Executive Director of the PGA European Tour
On 31st December 2004 Ken Schofield retired as Executive Director of the PGA European Tour after 30 years in the job. During that time he grew the Tour to be the second biggest Tour in the world behind the US PGA Tour. Under Schofield's continuing guidance, there has been a dramatic overall growth of the Tour which now attracts millions of viewers worldwide.

Ken's contribution to the PGA European Tour has been immeasurable

Born and raised in Perthshire, Scotland, he began his working life in the banking profession, and at the age of 23 became Scotland's youngest bank manager. Ken Schofield focused a fervent interest in sport by entering professional golf administration in 1971 as the Press and Public Relations executive to John Jacobs, the PGA Tournament Director General

John Scott
CEO
Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games

John represents the Organising Committee on the Glasgow 2014 Board in his role as Chief Executive. He joined the Board in June 2010 to strengthen the link between the Executive Team and the Board, and as a Board member John will increasingly focus on the external relations of the OC, with the media, political liaison, and our commercial negotiations around Sponsorship and Broadcasting
John Scott became Chief Executive of the Organising Committee on 4th August 2008. Prior to this, John was International Director and Director of Drug Free Sport at UK Sport where he was responsible for major events, international relations and led the UK national anti-doping organisation.

His first involvement in major sporting event management came in the 1980s when he was seconded to the Federal Government of Canada to set up a new division managing the government’s support for major events and international development. He led the Canadian government’s investment in the Victoria Commonwealth Games (1994) and was a member of the Bid committee for Canada’s successful Bid to host the 1999 Winnipeg Pan American Games.

He was heavily involved in the Federal Inquiry into doping in sport, following Ben Johnson’s positive drug test at the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games.

In 1999 he established the highly successful World Class Events Programme for UK Sport, which uses Lottery money to bring major sporting events to the UK and has so far delivered over 120 events across the whole of the UK. He has led the development of a number of evaluation tools for major events including an economic impact model that has become an industry standard, used to assess over 40 events in the UK, including several in Scotland.

He was a Board member of the highly successful 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games and the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games, and a special adviser to the government on the feasibility study for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid. He has attended six Commonwealth and six Olympic Games in various capacities.

John has also served on numerous international committees and working groups for organisations such as the IOC, UNDP, UNESCO and the Commonwealth Secretariat, and was the Chairman of the Council of Europe Committee for the Development of Sport. He was the UK representative on the Commonwealth Advisory Committee on Sport for five years.

Kevin Roberts
Editorial Director
Sport Business