Ian Troop, chief executive officer of the organizing committee for the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.
All of a sudden Ian Troop is very, very busy.
Tapped last week as the man to bring the hemisphere to Toronto for the 2015 Pan American Games, the new CEO of Toronto 2015 has his plate - and desk - full.
He will oversee the $1.4-billion budget for the event, which revolves around competitions in 48 sports. It will involve 17 municipalities and more than 50 facilities; co-ordinating 19,000 volunteers; construction of major new facilities and upgrades to others; dozens of vendor and supplier contracts; transportation, security and communications technology services; marketing, sponsorship, ticketing and broadcast programs; and staging successful athletic competitions.
What do you bring to this, personally?
I started my career with Procter & Gamble, in marketing. I'm a brand manager at heart. So I will want to make sure we have a strong definition of what the brand is, and have a powerful brand we can leverage with sponsorships. I've started, built and run businesses around the world, so I understand what it takes to start an organization from scratch.
I did spend six years in Mexico with P&G and ConAgra. I've travelled extensively in the region. I've lived in Poland and I've lived in the U.S. So I hope I can bring some cultural sensitivity and savvy and appreciate the great asset we have here in our diversity, and reach out to other Latin American countries in a productive way.
This is a project funded by governments that face soaring deficits. Is that an additional challenge?
It certainly reinforces the responsibility that I'm going to have, and our team's going to have, to deliver on time and on budget. We're inheriting a commitment; we're inheriting a mission.
What will the games mean to Toronto, to Canada and beyond?
Once you get past the meat and potatoes of delivering these games on budget and on time, there are huge opportunities to make it come alive in the bigger scale. There is a tremendous opportunity to almost transform the region - certainly the infrastructure will be a huge boon to Toronto and the GTA. ...
The other thing is an opportunity to elevate this form of sports event to a cultural event - how can we make this a celebration of pan-American art and music?
How do we make this event something that really engages our communities and captures their imagination?
The last part of what this means in a larger context - we've got such a fantastic diversity in the city. ...
I think that can become a role model for other countries.
Are these games a kind of setup for another Toronto Olympic bid?
There's certainly been speculative talk about that - Rio did a bang-up job on the Pan Am Games, and that demonstrated to the IOC [International Olympic Committee]that they were capable of handling an Olympic bid. And I think that's probably in some people's minds.
I'm focused on delivering a great Pan Am experience. And that's, really, a tall enough drink of water for me to handle right now.