According to a report in the San Francisco Business Times, several high-powered CEO’s have been signed on by the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee in a last-minute drive to convince the United States Olympic Committee that San Francisco should be the U.S. candidate for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
Included in the CEO team are Carly Fiorina, CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co., Charles Schwab, CEO of Charles Schwab Corp., Carl Pascarella, president of Visa USA and Craig Sullivan, president and CEO of Clorox Co. All four will serve as co-chairs of BASOC’s corporate council.
Tony Ridder, CEO of Knight Ridder and Roger Haughton, CEO of PMI Group Inc. are members of the team.
Ridder has pledged $1 million to BASOC’s potential international campaign to secure the 2012 Games and Haughton has pledged $500,000 which would be used to partially finance the building of an Olympic Village.
The Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee includes its board, which has more than 100 sports, community and business leaders. Its corporate council represents another group of about 100 companies that want the Games to come to San Francisco in 2012.
The corporate council will include former Secretary of State George Schultz, who will serve as honourary chairman.
The CEOs will also support the bid if it’s selected the U.S. candidate.
It will be up to each of the CEOs to determine what his or her level of involvement will be. There is no financial commitment of personal or corporate contributions, said Anne Cribbs, head of San Francisco 2012. There are no limits on the number of executives to serve on the corporate council, and more are likely to surface should San Francisco win the U.S. race.
The San Francisco Business Times writes that among the most glaring differences between New York and San Francisco’s bid has been corporate support.
New York raised more than $12 million while BASOC only $4 million. The newspaper says New York’s large financial institutions have been generous supporters, while the Bay Area’s high-tech giants have been less enthusiastic.
At least six New York companies have contributed more than $500,000 including AOL Time Warner, Merrill Lynch and JP MorganChase.
Criibbs said, “we got a late start and much of our bid was done with grass-roots support. Our corporate council co-chairs now represent the technology companies in the region and San Francisco. We want to show the USOC that Northern California’s business community is supportive and wants to work on the international bid. In the international phase, corporate brand recognition and support from the technology leaders will be a real advantage for us, and we want those relationships with these companies”.
