May 04, 2016 (Ottawa, ON) – Cycling Canada announced today that CEO / Secretary General Greg Mathieu has confirmed with the Board of Directors his plan to retire at the end of the calendar year. The plan to choose a successor, including the final job description, search parameters and recruitment process has been entrusted to a CEO Succession Sub-committee of the Board that is chaired by President, John Tolkamp.
With this planned change to the organization being on the horizon the Board is also engaged in strategic planning for the next quadrennial and beyond. The CEO Succession Sub-committee will look to have the outcomes of the plan aligned with the skills and expertise that will be expected in the next senior staff member of Cycling Canada.
John Tolkamp noted: “we have enjoyed the stability of our senior management team under Greg’s leadership since 2009 and are appreciative of the efforts made to further the growth of the organization while increasing our capacity in key areas of high performance, development and marketing. His successor will be expected to build on this growth and ensure continued recognition of Cycling Canada as a leading national sport organization.”
“It has been, and continues to be, an incredible experience working in a sport with such dedicated and passionate staff and volunteers,” said Mathieu. “We have moved the yardsticks together and I feel that the organization is ready to capitalize on the emerging cycling culture and the systemic improvement of Canadian cyclists across all cycling sports. Seeing Canadian cyclists succeed at the highest levels and becoming role models for the next generation has been quite rewarding as has the development of more world class cycling races in the country. I intend to make my final eight months in this position of measurable value to those that we serve.”
For more information on the Cycling Canada CEO / Secretary General position, please contact John Tolkamp at john.tolkamp@cyclingcanada.ca.
May 4th, 2016 at 3:58 pm
The biggest financial cycling support for all associations in Canada and the US today is the membership of licensed racers starting the sport late in life. The cliche is “cycling is the new golf”. One little flaw though. Here in North America we are not copying the successful European model of cycling as we are omitting the fan and spectator as an important element of the sport. When people come to watch a race they are confused by the number of races and classes and unless there are cheap hot dogs sold they are not likely to come back as fans. Races in Europe are one class and the spectators get to know the riders and become a fan of the athlete and the sport. We have to try to emulate that model as it’s good to enrich associations but we should try to evolve the sport and bring it up to a World and European level. Grand Fondos may help us to do that. Since they are competitive, have prizes for all classes and any level of rider can enter and have fun, they should replace the all day multi class, multi race, observer confusing events. Keep races one class only to Elite men, elite women and Juniors. With proper programs for the crowd to know who they are watching, we can start growing the sport, growing the fans, growing the sponsors and making the sport what it should be here in North America “GREATER” ans “World Level”.