Is Frostad heading for the America’s Cup?

by Rob Kothe & the Sail-World Team on 20 Sep 2015 When Knut Frostad told the sailing world he was resigning as the CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race event, after the most successful Round the World Race in recent times, although he had said it was for family reasons there was a lot of speculation on his plans going forward.

A hopeful group suggested he might be headed for San Francisco and then Bermuda to sort out an apparently dysfunctional America’s Cup organisation or take a key role in another high profile Sailing/event organisation.

One expert however suggested he should stand in front of a mirror and give himself an uppercut every time he contemplated such craziness.

Some background …

Knut Frostad, the outgoing CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, was a Norwegian sailor who raced off the beach in his early career, sailing twice at the Olympic Games, in Seoul 1988 and Barcelona in 1992 in windsurfing. Frostad was a Business Sports administration university graduate.

His first of four Volvo Ocean races was in 1993-94 aboard the Swedish boat Intrum Justitia which finished second.

In the 1997-98 VOR he was skipper, project founder and director with the Norwegian Innovation Kværner and in the 2001-02 VOR in the Norwegian Djuice Dragons. In the 2005-06 VOR he was watch captain on southern ocean legs in the Brazilian Brasil 1.

He took over the reins of the Volvo Ocean Race from Glenn Bourke less than eight months before the 2008-09 race and during the 2011-2012 Volvo Ocean Race he forecast the need to change the boats from open class to one design.

For the 2014-2015 race he has led the transformation of the race to One Design and the future appears bright.

But now he has resigned as CEO, in a move that shocked many.

Sail-World talked to Knut in Alicante on Friday to find out more…

Asked if he was headed for another major event such as the America’s Cup, he laughed.

‘I'm resigning, yes I am. To my family it was not a surprise. But it was a difficult, very difficult decision. Because I'm not leaving because I want to leave Volvo Ocean Race. So if I ended up in a job now in a big sailing event immediately, then that would not make sense I can assure you.

‘This is a race I know so well, and I have still a lot of things to contribute to it. So I will just continue to do that.

‘It is family, it's not only kids. I've been doing this now for eight years without stop, that’s because I love it. And it is a very, very intense job. But I'm also quite an intense person, so it goes sort of hand in hand.

‘And it's time, I just felt now it's time for me to actually take a break. I need to get some time for myself and my family, my wife, our six and one year old.

‘I think the race is in a really good shape as well. We have owners that are extremely happy with what they own and what they want to do in the future.

‘I wouldn't have felt so good about it if it was three or four years ago when the economic crisis was at its deepest and the situation was much more difficult.

‘But it was a tough decision. It's been probably my most difficult decision ever.

‘I have a lot of plans. Obviously I'm going to be here till the end of the year, and I'm also going to keep supporting the race for a period afterwards.

‘It’s extremely important to me that this race continues to be successful. And I guess they will have to throw me out of here in the end.

‘But my successor will have strong support from me in a new period. I think that's really, really important. Because it's an event where you - depending on what person that becomes the new CEO - it's an event where you need to know enough to learn details.

‘A lot of it is written down, but it's also good to hear it and discuss it. Sit down, understand the thoughts we have of the future of doing this. So I will be supporting the race on an ongoing basis, as requested.

‘We will stay here in Spain. We have no plans of moving from here.

‘I haven't been to Norway for more than 8 years now. And even before then, I was quite sort of - a lot of road tripping. So I wasn't really - I've never been homesick really.

‘So although I love my country, but it's not like I have to live there. And my kids are growing up here, my daughter is more Spanish than Norwegian - much more Spanish.

‘Most of my plans at the moment are not work related. I have a long list of things I've wanted to do for a long time, both with my family and my kids and also myself. In fact, I even want to be out on the water again.

Asked whether his plans going forward sailing connected Knut responded

‘I have some board positions that I will continue. And I, for example I sit on the board of Navico, which is the world's largest marine electronics company. I've done that for quite a few years.

‘I will continue to work closely with them, and that's been an interesting, interesting journey - and it will continue to be so. And I have a few other sort of business commitments, which is more an advisory role. So that will continue.

‘There are a couple of teams, new teams working on getting into the race. That have asked me to help them or give them advice, and I am looking forward to that.

‘I always say, 'This is not a job.' As Sir Peter Blake said, 'It gets into your blood and you just can't get rid of it.'

‘I also have a couple of my young and up and coming guys in the industry of professional sailing that I am kind of mentoring, and I will continue to do that.

‘And I want to get back in shape, like I was some years ago. I'm a bit older now. (48)

‘The search for my replacement started before I announced my resignation. It’s being managed by Volvo Headquarters in Sweden. And they absolutely want to see this race continue to be successful and grow, and improve in all the areas.

‘They are very serious about research. They want to have a very good leader for the race. And it's a challenging search, because you need a good portion of passion in this job.

‘And you don't necessarily need to be a sailor. That's narrowing down too much, but you need to be passionate about what this event is.

‘Within the Volvo group we have been talking about this subject and thinking about past skippers, the Volvo skippers.

‘There are two sides to that story. In a job like this or managing the America's Cup, or managing other big sailing events - having been a sailor and having this sort of passion, it's a huge bonus.

‘But at the same time, the fact that you have that doesn't mean that you are the right person for the job. Because also, it is a company running, it's a business. It's a long road. If you look at what I spend my day on, most of the time is - it's a lot of commercial things, it's a lot of strategic things. It's a lot of business things, working with governments etc.

‘But to spread that enthusiasm and to sell this dream and this - you have to be passionate.

‘I think you can also have more people in the organization that has that passion than that don't. And it's been, as an example, it's been a great asset to work for me and the company to have Nick Bice in our management team. He runs the Boat Yard.

‘So he has been able to stand next to me and send the same passion to the customers. Although we have other currently who have been on the scene of this race for years.

‘In the race right now, we are also recruiting a couple more people from the racing scene that with more of my background. And when they get their new CEO, their knowledge and experience will be very helpful. And we are going to increase the number of people who have that background each year.’

This is just the first part of this interview. In following pieces Knut talks about the highs and lows of the last eight years, the boats and the next race, decisions that are being made now and looks well into the future.