{"id":219,"date":"2012-06-22T10:30:55","date_gmt":"2012-06-22T10:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/?p=219"},"modified":"2012-07-10T11:26:37","modified_gmt":"2012-07-10T11:26:37","slug":"four-out-of-seven-directors-at-50m-olympic-energy-contractor-found-among-olympic-torchbearers-and-the-ceos-pa-gets-to-carry-a-torch-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/four-out-of-seven-directors-at-50m-olympic-energy-contractor-found-among-olympic-torchbearers-and-the-ceos-pa-gets-to-carry-a-torch-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Four out of seven directors at \u00a350m Olympic energy contractor found among Olympic torchbearers &#8211; and the CEO&#8217;s PA gets to carry a torch too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>UPDATE: Now <a href=\"http:\/\/caledonianmercury.com\/2012\/06\/22\/directors-of-olympic-contractor-bag-torchbearer-places\/0034440\">published on the Caledonian Mercury<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Rupert Soames<\/strong> is having a very good year. In addition to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-scotland-scotland-business-17750939\">netting a \u00a37m bonus this year<\/a> on top of his \u00a31.39m salary, and seeing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/finance\/newsbysector\/supportservices\/9201079\/Aggreko-revenues-jump-as-company-looks-ahead-to-London-2012-Olympics.html\">the company&#8217;s share price shoot up<\/a>, he will have the opportunity to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/torch-relay\/torchbearers\/community=the-london-borough-of-wandsworth\/\">carry the Olympic torch through Wandsworth<\/a> &#8211; thanks to his position as chief executive of the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.aggreko.co.uk\/news-events\/Aggreko_beyond_2012\/\">Official Temporary Energy Services Provider to the London 2012 Games<\/a>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<p>Soames is one of four of <a href=\"http:\/\/ir.aggreko.com\/investors\/board-of-directors.aspx\">the company&#8217;s 7 executive directors<\/a> to be found among the list of Olympic torchbearers &#8211; although not one mentions the company in their nomination story:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/torch-relay\/torchbearers\/torchbearers=william-caplan-1984\/index.html\">Bill Caplan<\/a>, Managing Director Europe and Middle East, gets to carry the torch through Dorking.<\/li>\n<li>49-year-old Kash Pandya from Dubai, Aggreko&#8217;s Regional Director International, has a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/torch-relay\/torchbearers\/torchbearers=kashyap-pandya-1987\/index.html\">spot carrying the torch through Kingston Upon Thames<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>56-year-old Peter Kennerley &#8211; the Company Secretary and Legal Director &#8211; is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/torch-relay\/torchbearers\/torchbearers=peter-kennerley-1955\/index.html\">carrying the torch through Girvan<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>In addition, Soames&#8217;s PA, Sheila McNeill, also <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/torch-relay\/torchbearers\/torchbearers=sheila-mcneill-7539\/\">carried the torch through Luss<\/a>.<!--more--><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>None of the four non-executive directors on the board, from outside the company, were found on the list of torchbearers.<\/p>\n<p>Olympics minister Hugh Robertson <a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/sport\/olympics\/9331461\/London-2012-Olympics-MPs-warned-that-community-champion-torchbearers-may-have-bought-their-privilege.html\">recently said<\/a> that the Olympic organisers LOCOG had written to sponsors and &#8220;discouraged them from allowing executives to run with the torch and encouraged them to find as many local champions as possible.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Aggreko is the latest company to emerge to have disregarded this advice.<\/p>\n<p>Soames, the 53-year-old chief executive of Aggreko, does not provide a nomination story on his torchbearer page so it is hard to judge how he fulfils the LOCOG guidelines to sponsors that torchbearers represent youth, &#8220;personal bests and\/or contribution to the community&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The son of Lord and Lady Soames, Rupert was educated at Eton and Oxford, and is the brother and brother-in-law respectively of Conservative MPs<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scotsman.com\/business\/business-profile-rupert-soames-aggreko-chief-executive-1-772014\"> Nicholas Soames<\/a> and Philip Dunne.<\/p>\n<p>His company Aggreko are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/business\/company-news\/aggreko-reveals-new-50m-deal.17243537?_=dad39ce1a0f516e191b0b515ea02e6cbc4ea76b6\">pocketing a reported \u00a350m for providing temporary power at the games<\/a>. Talking about the deal following a trip to the far east in April with David Cameron, Soames <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heraldscotland.com\/business\/company-news\/aggreko-reveals-new-50m-deal.17243537?_=dad39ce1a0f516e191b0b515ea02e6cbc4ea76b6\">said<\/a> he hoped the Olympics would help showcase his company, &#8220;provided we don&#8217;t make a Horlicks of it&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Nominations for torchbearers at Aggreko were <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kingsbridge-today.co.uk\/news.cfm?id=12700&amp;headline=Sportman%E2%80%99s+torch+role\">reportedly<\/a> put to the UK board &#8220;taking into consideration voluntary work, charity fundraising and how individuals have contributed to the company over the years.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Aggreko could not tell us who nominated the board members themselves.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the four directors, the company has also nominated some employees to carry the torch. Andrew Wotton, Aggreko&#8217;s Major Accounts Manager, is <a href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/u\/0\/104466071227582713892\/posts\/PPs9kgdKkD2\">the only one that the company has spoken publicly about<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But while Wotton&#8217;s story does mention voluntary work and charity fundraising, these are barely mentioned in the nomination stories of other employees <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bellascakes.biz\/2012\/06\/08\/happy-friday-20\/\">given the opportunity to carry the Olympic torch<\/a>: Chief Information Officer <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/torch-relay\/torchbearers\/torchbearers=thomas-armstrong-5796\/index.html\">Tom Armstrong<\/a> and senior analyst <a href=\"http:\/\/www.london2012.com\/torch-relay\/torchbearers\/torchbearers=dennis-cooper-1957\/index.html\">Dennis Cooper<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-18378621\"><img src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/60799000\/jpg\/_60799512_denniscooper.jpg\" alt=\"Aggreko's Dennis Cooper carrying the Olympic torch\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This contrasts with other sponsors who overwhelmingly nominated members of staff and children who raised money for charity, had achieved sporting milestones, or volunteered in their local community.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being asked for a response on Tuesday by both Help Me Investigate and BBC Radio regarding why the organisation ignored LOCOG&#8217;s advice not to nominate executives, Aggreko have not yet provided a response.<\/p>\n<p>A full table of the Aggreko torchbearers we have identified so far <del>will be published next week<\/del> <a href=\"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/get-the-data-aggreko-torchbearers\/\">is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE: Now published on the Caledonian Mercury. Rupert Soames is having a very good year. In addition to netting a \u00a37m bonus this year on top of his \u00a31.39m salary, and seeing the company&#8217;s share price shoot up, he will &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/four-out-of-seven-directors-at-50m-olympic-energy-contractor-found-among-olympic-torchbearers-and-the-ceos-pa-gets-to-carry-a-torch-too\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[79,1],"tags":[126,145,147,151,148,149,144,146,150],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":562,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219\/revisions\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/helpmeinvestigate.com\/olympics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}