Reuters reports that Formula One has a new board member and he may well be the replacement CEO for F1 when/if Bernie Ecclestone steps down from the post. Nestle’s Peter Brabeck told press that he had been installed at the board meeting in Monaco today. He also discussed the flotation of the sport saying:
“It was the first time that the board had a report on the preparation, there was pre-valuation of the whole process. I think we made a step forwards but no decision has been taken.”
“Within the board there is an IPO committee and the committee will come back to the full board when it feels that the next board meeting is necessary,” he said.
“We have not even fixed the next meeting. We left this thing open.”
While funny Willy Wonka jokes and pictures have been floating the Twitter cloud (and they are funny), I’m intrigued as to the politics of the move from CVC and just how Ecclestone feels about the move. What do you think of the appointment? Formula 1 seems to be behaving more like a major corporation more than ever now that venture capital is involved and like all good, large corporations, they seem to either remain tied to their consumer emotionally with a brand that is true to the NDA and core of it’s market position or it slowly issues death through committee. Can F1 assemble all teams, sponsors and investors and arrive at a consensus on anything other than “we need to keep the fans and promoters paying”?
