Do you know a candidate with the ability to lead, plan and surround themself with a great team. A visionary? UK Athletics would like to speak with that person.
UK Athletics has commenced recruitment of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to take the organisation forward. That person will work out of the UK Athletics office located in Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom.
The process opens Tuesday, January 18, and the job specification and advertisement can be viewed here. The closing date for applications is February 20, 2022.
This recruitment phase comes at a key time for the organisation which has been under the leadership of Chair Ian Beattie since October, and with four major senior track and field championships scheduled for 2022, the incoming CEO will take their seat at an exciting time for the sport.
UK Athletics’ hard deadline may handcuff the organisation
It could be argued that a hard deadline date, just four weeks out, will limit the candidates down to who is available at that time, with the best perhaps employed elsewhere. Additionally, the top of the CEO food chain offers a small sample size of candidates. It may behoove UK Athletics to take their time with this one.
“Experience in successfully setting and implementing strategy for an organisation of a similar scale and complexity as CEO or senior equivalent,” the job ad indicates.
Interim CEO Mark Munro has confirmed that he will not be applying for the permanent role of CEO at this time for personal reasons but will remain at UKA and continue his already successful work area overseeing Development.
“On behalf of the Board of UK Athletics, I would like to thank Mark for the massive contribution he has made in the short time he has been delivering the interim role and will no doubt continue to do until a permanent CEO appointment is made.
“For personal reasons, it is not a role he is able to undertake permanently at this time, but I am pleased to confirm that he will remain with UKA, not only continuing to oversee the Development area, but also to provide a high level of support to the new CEO.”
“I am very keen to encourage applications for this CEO role at what is an exciting time for the organisation, knowing they will be supported by a strong Board and Senior Leadership Team with a wealth of knowledge and experience within the sport.”
David Bedford in hot water over sexual tweets
According to the CBC article published on January 17, 2022, by Jamie Strashin, titled “Athletics Canada CEO David Bedford facing complaints over Twitter posts,” Bedford may not be the CEO of Athletics Canada for much longer.
In this day and age of intolerance towards sexualised public commentary, especially from someone in a leadership position, the tweets were off-side.
He apparently apologised for posting a series of sexually suggestive Twitter messages. He also cited humour as the motive.
According to CBC, Bedford posted the tweets as replies to nearly a dozen different Twitter accounts. The tweets have since been deleted.
“It’s my personal account. It’s not like I was sending out photos or tweets myself,” Bedford told CBC Sports. “In this day and age with all we have been going through, I found some of these things funny so I commented. It’s apparent others didn’t feel the same way so I removed them.”
Strashin states in the article that Bedford’s personal Twitter account indicates that he is the CEO of Athletics Canada and links the social media app to Athletics Canada. If that is the case, Bedford is indeed off-side. However, Athletics Illustrated is not privy to the now-deleted messages.
Athletics Canada will hold an emergency board meeting Monday night to decide the next steps. Board chair Helen Manning said confidence in Bedford’s ongoing ability to lead will be a central point of discussion and didn’t rule out asking for Bedford’s resignation.
Perhaps if Athletics Canada lets him go before February 20, 2022, he can apply to the UK Athletics position.
