According to published reports, Dick Pound, Canadian International Olympic Committee (IOC) member, said the process to choose a CEO for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games has been “hijacked”.
Pound, a member of the Vancouver 2010 board, said he believes that the board’s chairman Jack Poole and British Columbia’s Premier Gordon Campbell are manipulating the selection process so that John Furlong, head of the 2010 bid committee, is named to the position.
Pound said Furlong is unqualified to run a complex $6-billion project.
The Vancouver Sun reports that according to Pound, Canada could be faced with the embarrassment of having to replace its CEO prior to the Olympics, as has happened with other host countries recently.
Pound added, “there is a group that wants a particular candidate and they don’t much care how they go about getting it”.
Meanwhile, Canadian IOC member Paul Henderson says the Vancouver 2010 organizing committee is “playing politics” in delaying the appointment of a new CEO. Henderson criticized B.C. representatives who opposed hiring John Furlong.
Vancouver 2010’s board is holding a conference call Friday in which two names will be presented for CEO. John Furlong is one of the candidates and the other name has been kept secret.
