Profile
Richard Bundy talks to Mark Turner W
hile yachting has obviously advanced the career of Mark Turner, he seems to have a
love/ hate relationship with it. It has been good to him, but it also holds him back. If the popular image of him from a decade ago, as the man who metaphorically held Ellen MacArthur’s coat as she went into battle, irked him – or if he was even aware of it – he certainly never complained. But there is no doubt that the time of Ellen’s withdrawal from Offshore Challenge has tapped into yet another source of energy in this already energetic entrepreneur. On September 3rd
2010 the merger was
announced between the OC Group – formerly Offshore Challenge – and Swiss- based Third Pole, creating a potential world leader in sports marketing and event creation and management. OC has been a market leader since its inception in
16 cywinter 2011
professional sailing events and Third Pole is a new and expanding force in outdoor events ranging from running, cycling and biathlon to more extreme sports including adventure and trail-running races. ‘OC and Third Pole combined,’ said their press release at the time, ‘aspire to become a world leader of outdoor events on all playing fi elds: oceans, lakes, mountains, forests and deserts and city centres.’ “It’s taking a little while to bring the
two bits together,” says Mark now, relaxed in his offi ce in East Cowes. “But that’s normal. Third Pole is an 18-month-old start-up in outdoor events, run by a guy I’ve known for fi ve or six years, Rémi Duchemin – we climbed Mont Blanc together a little while ago. Rémi worked at Amaury Sports (ASO) in France for ten years – they own the Tour de France, Paris-Dakar Rally, Paris Marathon, French
the Extreme IN
Open Golf – they’re the main sports event organizer in France. “Anyway, I was a small shareholder – an angel if you like – in getting Third Pole going – but not involved in any way in the way it functioned – and I wanted to get into that area; Rémi wanted to get his new company going; we’d both wanted to work together…and a few things happened this summer to make this the way to go. “Effectively, what we have now is a company in the UK, a company in France and a company in Switzerland, and we run things across all the offi ces. We have the Third Pole offi ce just outside Geneva – we’ll probably be moving to Lausanne next year because we need a bigger offi ce. The media team is based here in Cowes, the commercial team is going to be based in Switzerland, the delivery team for the
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