World Championship Series Triathlon
In 2009 I was appointed Event Director by Upsolut Sports to create, from the ground up, the first professional and mass-participation triathlon to be staged in central London.
The brief was simple in ambition and complex in reality: deliver an Olympic-distance triathlon through Hyde Park and the roads surrounding Buckingham Palace – within one of the most sensitive and heavily regulated urban environments in the United Kingdom.
The project required navigating significant political and cultural challenges, securing permissions, designing a safe and broadcast-ready course, integrating elite and age-group racing, and coordinating across city authorities, Royal Parks, security services and international sporting bodies. At the time, no precedent existed for staging a triathlon of this scale in central London.
Held over 15–16 August, the 2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series formed part of the inaugural ITU World Championship Series and became the largest race of the season. The Olympic-distance course featured a 1.5km swim in the Serpentine, a 40km bike course through central London, and a 10km run within Hyde Park.
The London event went on to serve as the template and venue for the triathlon competition at the London 2012 Olympic Games, establishing a lasting sporting legacy within the capital.
Photo courtesy of Upsolut Sport, © Copyright onEdition 2009.
UEFA Champions League Festival
As Executive Producer, I led the delivery of the 2011 UEFA Champions Festival for UEFA and The Football Association. The eight-day, free-to-attend celebration was staged at Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park ahead of the UEFA Champions League Final at Wembley Stadium.
Designed as the official fan hub for the Final, the Festival transformed Hyde Park into a large-scale football destination open to all – including those without match tickets.
The programme combined trophy experiences, live performance, interactive skills zones, coaching clinics, exhibition matches and curated heritage content celebrating the history of European competition.
Highlights included public access to both the men’s and women’s Champions League trophies, the “Ultimate Champions” exhibition match featuring international legends, a purpose-built 500-seat Theatre of Champions, and an official Museum of Champions showcasing rare memorabilia.
Ambassadors Gary Lineker and Graeme Le Saux supported the programme, which ran daily for eight consecutive days and culminated ahead of the Final at Wembley.
Delivered in one of London’s most visible public spaces, the Festival required close coordination across city authorities, security services, local residents and stakeholders, and UEFA – to create a free, inclusive and globally visible civic celebration around one of the world’s most-watched sporting events.
Tour de France
As overarching Event Director, working with the Mayor of London, Transport for London and the UK Government, I led the delivery of the Tour de France’s 2007 Grand Départ in London and the South East of the UK.
The event included an opening ceremony, the central London prologue, and Stage 1 running from London to Kent before the race continued to France.
At the time, it was without precedent in the UK. Many of the governance structures, operational templates and cross-agency models now considered standard practice had to be created.
More than 20,000 people worked on the event. Over two million attended in person. Hundreds of millions watched globally.
Its success was formally recognised in an Early Day Motion in Parliament as “an excellent showcase for the United Kingdom and its ability to stage major sporting events as London prepares to host the Olympic Games in 2012.”
It remains one of the defining demonstrations of what coordinated ambition with effective leadership can achieve at scale and established foundations for national event governance models.
