Sebastian Coe
Chairman
LOCOG
General consensus is that without the leadership of the 1980 and 1984 gold-medal distance runner, London wouldn’t
be hosting the Olympics. Coe made a stirring speech during London’s bid presentation that many credit with swaying some final undecided voters to award London the Games over Paris. Coe subsequently became chairman of London’s organizing committee for the Games (LOCOG), serving as the public face of the event. He leans on his experience as a member of Parliament to manage political relationships with the mayor and U.K. government and makes most — if not all — of the ceremonial, public appearances at news conferences for LOCOG.
Hugh Robertson
Minister of Sport
The conservative member of Parliament was given oversight responsibility for the Olympics in 2010 after the new coalition government was formed. When the United Kingdom began undertaking austerity measures to cut its budget, Robertson became the point person in the effort to find cost savings from the Olympics. He did so by pushing for private-sector support of some remaining facility costs. Over the next year, he will continue to oversee the Olympic budget and work with LOCOG to be sure the Games are delivered at a reasonable cost.
Roger Mosey
Director of
London 2012, BBC
The former director of BBC Sport is undertaking one of the most ambitious broadcasting initiatives in Olympic
history. The broadcaster will offer mobile, online, broadcast and possibly 3-D coverage of competition. It has pledged to show every hour of every event in high definition, delivering a total of 5,800 hours of programming over 17 days. The effort represents an enormous increase from the 300 hours of programming it offered from the Beijing Games.
Chris Townsend
Commercial director
LOCOG
The longtime marketer is responsible for overseeing the generation of all the pounds and pence that will pay for the 2012 Olympics. He has managed the domestic sponsorship, ticketing, merchandising and Paralympic broadcast negotiations for the 2012 Olympics. His team has raised more than $1 billion in sponsorship revenue, generated unprecedented demand for Olympic tickets, and sold the domestic broadcast rights to the 2012 Paralympics to Channel 4 for $16 million.
Doug Arnot
Director of Games
Operations
LOCOG
Few people have more experience planning an Olympics than Arnot. The American attorney served as the managing
director of venues and operations for the Atlanta Games and managing director for event operations for the Salt Lake City Games before taking a role planning Chicago’s bid for the 2016 Olympics. At LOCOG, he will oversee the most crucial elements of the 2012 Olympics, from accrediting and validating guests, to managing the massive staff and volunteer work force across more than 20 venues and the Olympic Park.
