Name: Mark Turner
Position: Volvo Ocean Race CEO
Age: 49
Where I’m from: England
Where I call home: Alicante, Spain
Focusing on right now: I’m constricting my time between developing a 10-year vision for the race and, in the short term, securing the final two team sponsor deals (which begins in October ‘17). Probably my biggest focus is being out on the road and talking to potential sponsors and helping nail down those deals.
Best advice: You’re only as good as your next result. I’ve never forgotten that one. I’m not sure it’s the best advice, but it’s certainly the most memorable.
Exec I admire: I think what I respect most is out-of-the-box thinking. I love the way that Red Bull continually reinvents or makes events up. I think it’s just incredible, their ability to reinvent, or invent, sports where no one’s even thought you could create a sport. I admire their ability to just not care about the rules or the past and come up with something completely fresh and new.
Best book I’ve read: “The Advantage,” by PATRICK LENCIONI on organizational health. It’s my book of the year at the moment.
First thing in the morning: If I can, go for a swim. It’s important to go train -- hard. I don’t manage to do that every day by a long way unfortunately, but that’s what would be my perfect start to the day, when I can.
Talking tech: We do what people do on land now without second thought in the middle of the ocean in a very hostile environment with only a satellite to communicate by. So it makes things very odd to say this, but in this next race we’re hoping to give the crew the direct ability from their own handhelds to share what is going on in the middle of the ocean directly to social networks. That might seem obvious and easy, but it’s extremely difficult. We think we’ve made a breakthrough with our satellite partners to be able to do that. Also, the iPhone 7; they claim they’re waterproof, so we’re going to test it to see if it really is. If we can bring that raw content back, we’ve got an amazing, authentic story to tell. Today, a lot of that stays on the boat.
Must-have music: A bit of classical music by someone called HENRYK GORECKI, something that I can disappear with for about 20 minutes. But I listen to everything.
Food for thought: The first part of my life I used food as purely fuel, especially when I was able to be more training in sport. With age, I appreciate a good Michelin star restaurant from time to time, I have to admit. Modern cuisine. My biggest passion is fish, and unfortunately right now more and more fish have more and more plastic inside them, so this is a big challenge.
How I unwind: Exercise. A swimming or cycling challenge -- that’s my form of meditation. To work out hard in the pool or on the ocean or on the bike.
A day in the life: So the last three or four months on the job, I think I’ve averaged 12 or 14 flights a week. A day in the life for me is pretty fast and furious. A whole lot of air miles. Also, catching up with calls between flights and getting in front of people; getting face time with our clients, both to understand the market and the direction to go to do the deals we need to do for the upcoming race.
