LONDON, 19 June 2003 — American businesswoman Barbara Cassani will lead London’s bid for the 2012 Olympics.
Cassani, 42, was named yesterday as chairman of the bid committee by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the British Olympic Association and the British government.
Cassani, who holds a British passport and is married to a British investment banker, lives in London with their two children.
She is viewed as a dynamic figure who can do the same job for London as Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki did to win the 2004 Olympics for Athens. Cassani launched the budget airline Go for British Airways in 1998. She was named Britain’s businesswoman of the year last year after masterminding the buy-out of Go from its parent British Airways.
The company’s independence was short-lived but after Easyjet’s takeover Cassani left with an estimated 16 million pounds for her four percent stake. Cassani will begin work immediately with her first task to appoint a chief executive for the bid campaign.
If Cassani and her team are successful, the Government will put together a public funding package of 2.375 billion pounds for the Games, including a 50 percent contingency fund. A special Olympic Lottery game would raise 1.2 billion pounds, London residents would provide up to 625 million pounds through a council tax Olympic surcharge, 300 million pounds would come from current Lottery sports money and 250 million pounds from the London Development Agency.
