Who do you consider to be your business mentor or mentors, and what particular examples did they imprint on your business values?
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I have been fortunate to come into contact with so many brilliant people over my 19 years at Emirates and I have learned so much from them. Especially my own sponsorship team who were an inspiring group to work with over that last ten years.
I would say Sir Maurice Flanagan at Emirates was an inspirational leader. He was dedicated to the very end and so supportive of all our brand aspirations.
Queen Elizabeth knighted Sir Maurice Flanagan at a special investiture in November 2010 in Abu Dhabi while on a State visit to the Middle East. On Flanagan’s retirement from Emirates, the airline’s current CEO Shaikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum said, ‘when you see some good in me, you see what Maurice taught me’.
Outside of Emirates, it is probably George Mackin, who is currently the Chairman of Playsight (the leading SmartCourt sports technology platform) and who I signed a few deals with while he was CMO for the Indian Wells Tennis ATP 1000 event. George's passion and business savy is second to none. Apart from his expertise in marketing communications, amongst other areas, he is approachable and an all-around solid person. That's important. If you are successful and an asshole people may respect you but not like you. It takes a special person to be successful, respected and likeable. Rare qualities in today's world.
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What was the most significant ‘Sliding Doors’ moment in your career, and how did this impact you?
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After graduate school in Texas, I was deciding between a job in the Bahamas or Vancouver where I had attended the University of British Columbia. As a young man I couldn't pass up the opportunity to move to the Bahamas and live the island life for a year. Little did I know it would be five years and I would meet my wife there.
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If you had the option to experience/live in one movie which would it be and why?
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Moneyball. From a business point of view, what the Oakland A's accomplished during that time period was unprecendented. They basically started the whole analytical approach to sport and baseball in particular. The real life GM, Billy Beane, proved that by using analytics it was possible to build a competive team on a budget. Great story and wonderful movie. I would have loved to have been a Billy Beane player during that era..
[The 2011 film Moneyball follows the Oakland Athletics and their general manager Billy Beane as he tries to reinvent his small-payroll team using statistical modelling, called sabermetrics, that had never been used before. In this clip, Beane, played by Brad Pitt, is listening to his old-school scouts discuss their old-school selection methods, including the famous ‘ugly girlfriend’ no-no.]
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