Changes ahead for World Sailing - Interview with new ISAF CEO.

by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World team on 6 Jul 2015 Last week ISAF announced the appointment of a new CEO, Peter Sowrey.

He is not a long time ISAF face, as his predecessor Jerome Pels was, little is known of him in the wider sailing world.

We knew Peter Sowrey was the former Managing Director of Business Process Outsourcing and Sales for Accenture, a multinational management consulting, technology services, and outsourcing company and a keen sailor but little else..

So on his third day at the ISAF Office in Southampton Sail-World talked to the new Chief Executive.

We asked him to begin at the beginning.

‘I was born in Northern Ireland in Belfast, but I grew up in Hong Kong until I was 16.

‘From a sailing family. My family sailed keelboats and so I was on boats from when very young. At age 8, started off in Enterprises and then Lasers and from then I have had an ongoing passion for sailing.

‘Went to boarding school in Surrey in the UK, then went to University in Norwich. Did a lot of sailing off the east coast, in 505’s and Flying Dutchmen. Then after that started moving into bigger boats.

‘After University I spent 4, 5 years living in the USA, then back in Asia and for the last 15 years have been in Italy and Brazil.

‘I've been working for Accenture focusing on the business process and particularly out sourcing as well as covering sales for the region from Europe to Latin America.

‘So I’ve spent a lot of time on the road, living in different places. So back in Southampton with ISAF, this is my first time living in the UK I think for about maybe 15 years or something like that.

‘Time flies, I am 51 but in my head I'm probably about 25 still. Over the last decades I’ve been racing things like the Beneteau 40’s then I moved out to Italy and became a sort of big fan of the Italian boats. And today I race a 40 foot Grand Soleil.

‘But when I'm not working I'm sailing in my head. In recent years when going to regattas, I like to take a load of business partners or CEO's or similar- guys who have never been sailing before.

‘So for the Caribbean 600 last year, I took some business partners and one of the top back Consultants in Britain. and we chartered a Beneteau First 40, Lancelot II to introduce them to the sport of sailing.

My friend Alex Thompson (of Vendee Globe fame) skippered the boat and we beat the living daylights out of these guys for a week before the event and then we went on to win our IRC div 2 class. (Lancelot II pitured above)

OK, so we know he is a sailor (That is a tick).

Peter Sowrey © SW

Now to ISAF and the leadership role.

First up Sowrey admitted he had little experience of the peak body’s processes until now, he never been to an ISAF conference but he was being briefed by a whole range of participants and was aware there a lot of questions asked about the ISAF decision making processes.

‘We have this role - it's a governing body and sometimes we have to make some tough decisions. Our decision process - it’s something we need to get better, of course it’s far from easy.

‘I had some calls from guys running other sports and they were a little bit critical about how complex we are. It’s not like tennis when they just have a tennis racket and court and ball, 2 balls - there's some complexity.

‘I come from modern business, and when I look at the whole thing and see what we could make things easier. We need to change where it makes sense and more efficient, while we focus on supporting the sport.

‘Business can be political. In a big company it can be very political. But I come from an environment where we drive business on facts rather than politics.

‘And my view is I'll let someone else deal with the politics. I'm really focused on what do we need to do to steer this business in ISAF, and make sure that we're driving it in the right way.

‘Also I come from a business world where we apply a lot of technology to process management, and there's a lot of opportunity I would say here to provide a lot more information and make decisions actually within the systems based on fact.

‘And then you just get outcomes coming out of the whole process. Rather than it being a committee just saying yeah to something else, rather than decisions being based on real factual information. (another tick)

‘We need to find the right balance and that starts with aligning strategy, and making sure everyone knows what the strategy is, it's absolute key.

‘Carlo Croce, our President has a very clear vision, and he is, I think, one of smartest guys I met not only in business but in sailing.

‘We are working already on a simplified restatement of the aims of ISAF, making sure we're clear on a vision.

‘I want to run a much focused environment which is concentrating on deliverables, outcomes and key strategies that support the sailing environment.


Changes ahead – It’s no secret we're going to drop the ISAF name pretty soon, and reposition as World Sailing. And I think that it suits very much a modern governing body for the sport of sailing. In the same way that World Rugby's done for rugby and World Archery for archery.

Thinking ahead - on launching the brand, enhancing the brand - and improving the brand, my emphasis will be largely on participation.
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I'm very interested in the whole journey from youth sailing and emerging nations to guys racing in the Vendée Globe, in the America's Cups.

We have a nine year old daughter, she's also like me - started off in Lasers, because I did the same thing my father did and so she is starting early too.

I really want to drive this transformation journey from kids learning - around end to end, from juniors to great grand masters.

And that's what really interests me, and during my interview process, the ISAF executive members asked me, 'What would be the key drivers I would look at and the key performance indicators I would consider?'

And I thought I would talk about partnerships, sponsorship or something like that, but actually what I said was around participation, around growing the sport.

And making it a fun, challenging, environmental, family oriented – we had about 100 Optimist racing on the water in Italy, it’s great just to see the whole family environment, getting people out on the water.

That is as interesting to me as the Olympics or the America's Cup or the Vendee Globe or the Volvo…

So it's getting that balance, how you make decisions that make sure the participation is increasing and sailors can explore different areas of our sport?

Actually that is the challenge, it’s what I want to help make happen and it’s why I am here.


(Yes another tick from us, we just hope he and his team can deliver, there is a lot of work to do and a restructure of decision making in our peak body is very much needed. We wish Peter Sowrey fair winds).