Five months after the Alpari World Match Racing Tour announced the departure of former CEO Jim O’Toole, the series has confirmed the appointment of James Pleasance to the position of ‘Executive Director’. Pleasance has had a long association with the tour, having worked for the previous commercial rights holder Force 10 Marketing and maintained a position as a Director of the Tour for the past decade. Most recently, James has worked with the Informa Yacht Group, developing events like the World Yacht Racing Forum and Superyacht Cup. The World Yacht Racing Forum will now be headed up by James Gradwell. YACHTRACING.BIZ
Despite securing a title sponsor for the 2012 season and signing deals with sponsors like Lotus, the Alpari World Match Racing Tour is struggling a little bit to find it’s place in the new world order. In the past, the Tour was a recognised path to the America’s Cup, with almost every America’s Cup helm spending time on the tour to perfect match racing skills against the best in the world. Now, America’s Cup stars are just as likely to come from sailing moths or 49ers.
Nevertheless, the WMRT is at the pinnacle of a global network of events that includes supporting national and regional competitions – something that neither the Extreme Sailing Series or the America’s Cup World Series has. The tour also has a different business model to almost every other sailing event.
Speaking about his appointment, James said:
“This is a very exciting time to be involved with the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. We have a fantastic global series and we are committed to growing it further with new events and making the Tour more accessible than ever before. I look forward to working closely with the whole team, and the Tour events and partners.”
Peter Gilmour, President, Alpari World Match Racing Tour, added:
“We are very pleased to welcome James back to this key position within the Alpari World Match Racing Tour. He has tremendous experience which is important to this franchise as we continue to grow the Tour around the world.’
Stay tuned for an in-depth interview with the new boss of the Alpari World Match Racing Tour – coming soon.
