People

Pavel Turek

Born in the coalfield town of Ostrava in Czechoslovakia in 1971, the Formula 1 manager of West cigarettes is much younger than many of those in similar jobs with rival tobacco companies. He has the job because of an enormous enthusiasm for the program and because he speaks seven languages...

Ostrava is close to the Polish border and so Pavel grew up speaking both Czech and Polish. At school he learned Russian and German and in recent years he has added Slovakian, Spanish and English. Languages are a very important part of the job as West is using its involvement with McLaren in Formula 1 to promote sales in the old Eastern bloc countries.

When he left school Pavel went to Prague University to study economics and international affairs. Like all students he needed money and so worked during his vacation. He found work selling cigarettes for the Reemtsma company which owns the West brand. Very quickly he was offered a full-time job in the marketing department. He decided that he wanted to complete his studies but at the same time it was a good offer so Turek decided to do both. As a result he used to get up early in the morning and study before going to work. In the evenings he went back to his books. He finished his studies in the summer of 1992 and that year became responsible for organizing promotional events in Czechoslovakia and running the sponsorship programs. At the time West was involved in the world of motocross, sponsoring the European and World Championships and Turek organized sponsorship of the Czechoslavakian Championship. When the country split up at the end of 1993 he ran the sponsorships in both the Czech Republic and Slovakian series.

That continued until 1995 when he was transferred to the Reemtsma company headquarters in Hamburg, in the north of Germany. At the time it was a very German company and Pavel was the very first foreign employee working in the Hamburg offices. For the first 18 months he was involved with marketing in the German markets and then towards the end of 1996 it was announced that West had agreed a five year deal to sponsor McLaren in Formula 1. Pavel wrote a letter to the boss of the marketing department asking to be part of the new project...

Pavel's main job is to organize promotional events around the Formula 1 sponsorship. This involves considerable use of the McLaren two-seater but also several such visits to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center at Star City near Moscow in Russia to give Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard experience of weightlessness - and West plenty of media exposure.