Commonwealth Games organizers are "being accused of overlooking Australian talent" in favor of "mates" who worked on previous Games in key organizational roles, according to Simon King of THE AUSTRALIAN. Ceremonies guru Ric Birch, who gained world recognition for the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games and organized the Sydney 2000 Olympics opening ceremony, described the hiring policies of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee as "crazy" and "second tier." GOLDOC "overlooked" Birch’s resume -- alongside Australian bids from David Atkins and Julie Brooks -- for the 2018 opening and closing ceremonies' tender, in favor of U.S. company Jack Morton Worldwide. Six of the seven staff the committee hired for "key press operational planning roles" by the organizing committee are from overseas. The department is led by British venue press operations manager Mandy Keegan; her Greek partner Lila Sotiriou is photo operations manager; venue press operations manager is Keegan’s former British colleague Anna Greenway. Birch, who said that he is "still waiting to hear from GOLDOC the reason it ignored him" despite an "unrivalled CV -- which also includes the Los Angeles, Barcelona and Turin Olympics and the Delhi Commonwealth Games" -- said that he found the foreign press hirings "really extraordinary." He said, "We have world leaders in this field ... apart from anything else, the cost involved in bringing people from overseas seems ridiculous for a Games which is meant to be being run on a reduced budget." GOLDOC CEO Mark Peters said that criticism of appointments "came from people who went through an independent process" and did not get a job. Peters: "That smacks of sour grapes" (THE AUSTRALIAN, 10/19).
