SEPTEMBER 14, 2006

New faces on the F1 board

The Formula One has taken another step towards becoming a more traditional company by announcing the appointment of two serious international businessmen to the board of Alpha Topco Ltd, the holding company of the business.

The Formula One has taken another step towards becoming a more traditional company by announcing the appointment of two serious international businessmen to the board of Alpha Topco Ltd, the holding company of the business. The two non-executive directors named are Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the chairman and chief executive of Nestle and Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of the marketing agency WPP.

Brabeck-Letmathe is a 61-year-old Austrian who has been with Nestle since 1968, including 17 years in Latin America. Since 1987 he has worked at Nestle's headquarters in Switzerland, running various different aspects of the giant food company. He has been chief executive since 1997 and became chairman in April 2005. He is also on the boards of Credit Suisse, cosmetics firm L'Oreal and drug company Roche.

Sorrell (61) is an economics graduate from Christ's College, Cambridge with an MBA from Harvard Business School. He went on to work for the celebrated sports agent Mark McCormack before joining Saatchi & Saatchi in 1977, overseeing the firms international expansion as the Group Finance Director of the business. In 1986 he acquired a stake in Wire and Plastic Products Plc, a UK manufacturer of wire baskets, after looking for a listed company that he could turn into a global marketing business. He acquired Ogilvy & Mather, Young & Rubicam, J Walter Thompson, Hill & Knowlton and a variety of public relations, media and survey companies to create one of the world's leading communications services and advertising companies. He was knighted in 2000.

"We are confident that they will make a significant contribution to the board of Alpha Topco Limited and the future success of Formula 1," said Donald McKenzie of CVC.