UKA’s Ed Warner Becomes Chairman of London 2017 Committee

UK Athletics Chairman Ed Warner has today been named as the Chairman of the London 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships Organising Committee.

Warner, who led the successful bid to host the event in London has been appointed by the DCMS and Mayor of London’s office.

As Chair of London 2017, Warner will now submit a proposed corporate structure and governance framework to the IAAF for approval and will work with both the Sports Minister Hugh Robertson and Mayor Boris Johnson to appoint the remainder of the board.

Warner said: “I am absolutely thrilled to have been appointed as Chairman of the London 2017 LOC and have the opportunity to fulfil the promises we made in the bid. From the very start London 2017 has been a partnership between UKA, DCMS, the Mayor’s Office and UK Sport and I look forward to continuing that collaboration as we move into event delivery mode.”

“Our next step is to appoint a vice-chairman and the remainder of the board. In the short term UKA will be undertaking the work of the LOC until we need to increase the size of the operation to deliver the Championships.”

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson said: ““The appointment of Ed Warner to chair the Organising Committee builds on the great work done by him and UK Athletics to win the bid. The challenge now will be to build on the momentum that London 2012 gives us to deliver a fantastic World Athletics Championships in 2017.”

Mayor of London Boris Johnson added: “Ed is a Londoner and I know he will lead the committee to ensure an outstanding World Athletics Championships is staged here in the capital and continue London’s great tradition of hosting the world’s biggest events.”

Baroness Sue Campbell, Chair of UK Sport, the agency responsible for the significant investment of National Lottery funds into the event commented: “Ed will do a fantastic job of leading the LOC that will stage the London 2017 World Athletics Championships. He has already shown the vision and leadership necessary to stage this event, which will be a wonderful opportunity to showcase our talented athletes, and the team here at UK Sport is looking forward to working with him to continue the momentum we have now built for hosting world class events in this country.”

Recently, Ed Warner was confirmed as a panellist for the iSportconnect Directors’ Club event on 21 February, joining Sir Craig Reedie, Sally Hancock, Paul Vaughan and Nic Coward for a special ‘question time’ session. 

by Ismail Uddin

Read Warner’s exclusive feature profile on iSportconnect here