Profile
Kate Laven talks to Sarah Treseder, CEO of the Royal Yachting Association
JAoin the Dots
ccording to a recent Sport England survey on participation, sailing suffered a decline in numbers last year but Royal Yachting Association’s new boss Sarah
Treseder is bringing a cool, calm business head to what many might view as calamitous news. Sailing was one of 22 sports from a total of 26 surveyed that did not show a signifi cant increase in participation levels. Even football is in decline, the survey reported and only netball, mountaineering, cycling and athletics reported brisk business in 2010.
As defender of all things boaty, Treseder, who in April completes her fi rst year as the RYA’s new Chief Executive Offi cer, may have shuddered at the disturbing 27% drop in levels reported in the 2010 the Active People Survey.
Far from it. Her broad raft of commercial expertise gained in management consultancy at McKinsey & Co, newspapers at Newsquest, drinks brands at Diageo and organising some of the world’s best parties for the Admirable Crichton is combined with a brain the size of a planet, which earned her a fi rst in PPE from Oxford University. This powerful blend has afforded her a pragmatic – and serene
34 cywinter 2011 – approach to fl ash points, such as this alarming survey.
“Although the survey shows a decline in sailing, our gut feel is that it just doesn’t feel right,” she says.
“It is not massively increasing but it is not falling off a cliff. If
it was, I would expect other things to show that as well but they don’t.
“Instead of saying to Sport England we do not believe you, we are pulling together our own fi gures. We are going to try and make a more scientifi c fi st of it by pulling together all the data we have access to …such as how many people are booking courses, information from regattas, class associations, clubs and training providers and our own membership activity.
“Either they are right and there is a catastrophic decline and we need to sort it out, which we can only do if we know more, or our hunch is right and we should not be diverting resources to a problem that doesn’t exist.”
It is for this sort of unfl appability that Treseder was recruited, to succeed Rod Carr who, during his 25 years at the RYA, focused mainly on Britain’s Olympic campaigns.
He was fi rst and foremost a racing sailor with a gift for organisation and planning. She is also a sailor but fi rst and foremost, she is a businesswoman with a keen ear and a clear
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