People

Bill Sweeney

Wheeler-dealer Bill Sweeney only began in working in Grand Prix racing at the end of 1999, joining Jordan Grand Prix but he quickly made his mark, pulling off a merchandising deal which left the other Formula 1 teams wondering why they did not think of it first. Sweeney's deal linked Jordan Grand Prix with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Each marketed the other's brand around in their respective markets.

Sweeney is unusual in Formula 1 marketing circles as his background is not in sport but in the rough-and-tumble of global business with the Reebok shoe company. At the time the company was booming with sales leaping from $3.5m in 1982 to over $300m in 1985. The success bought growth with the purchase of Rockport, Avia and Ellesse. Sweeney's job was to market Reebok and Rockport in Asia from a base in Hong Kong and later in Tokyo. The program was an enormous success and the Reebok brand boomed. In the United States it took a 22% shareholding in the US market. In the early 1990s however aggressive marketing from Nike hit Reebok sales in the United States and the share of the market dropped dramatically. In 1997 Sweeney was transferred from Asia to work at the Reebok company headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts in charge of the Reebok brand and the fitness division of the company. Reebok's fortunes took another dive later that year when the Asian markets crumbled following the economic crisis.

Sweeney decided that it was time for a change and liked the idea of the challenge of trying to create a lifestyle brand from a Formula 1 team. He quickly identified that Jordan's biggest weakness in its merchandising operations was the US market and he began looking for an American partner for the team.

Sweeney may not know very much about Formula 1 but he is enjoying the entrepreneurial atmosphere of the sport and reveling in the fact that 16 or 17 times a year he has an audience of over 300m people for each Grand Prix.