The road to Wimbledon
By GILES MORGAN Global Head of Sponsorship & Events, HSBC Holdings As a sports-crazy boy growing up in Wales, I admired my heroes wearing the famous red jerseys of the national rugby team. I could never have dreamt that my career would bring me so close to these heroes and other places beyond my boyhood dreams. Now, as the Global Head of Sponsorship and Events for HSBC, I’ve been privileged to work with many Welsh rugby greats through our sponsorship of the British & Irish Lions. My grandfather, a Welsh farmer and passionate supporter of Welsh rugby, would have been so proud that his errant grandson ended up running two Lions tours to South Africa and Australia in 2009 and 2013! That has been a personal highlight for me, but the most humbling of all the activities we do, and it includes the launch of ‘The Road to Wimbledon’ here in India. It is our commitment to using sport as a catalyst for growth for young people – to see children from all over the world being empowered through sports programmes funded by HSBC. I find it both personally and professionally gratifying. I have just been part of ‘The Road to Wimbledon’ launch in India, a major new initiative aimed at boosting the development of junior tennis in this country. Wimbledon is one of our flagship sponsorships and a truly unique event which transcends sport. However, even Wimbledon champions have to start somewhere, which is why the initiative is so important to us. This new activity complements our existing support for ‘The Road to Wimbledon’ which involves 700 clubs and thousands of children from all over the UK. As a global banking and financial services organization, we open up a world of opportunities for people and the expansion to India is the perfect way to start the latest chapter in this story. Such grass roots programmes complement our portfolio of flagship sponsorship events in markets all over the world. We’re lucky to be part of iconic events like the world famous Wimbledon Championships, The Open Championship in golf and the HSBC Sevens Series in rugby. Our sponsorship of these events is designed to engage our top customers in our top markets through associations that reinforce HSBC values and purpose – this is both a great challenge and a great honour. To have the role I have is an enormous privilege – I work for one of the world’s biggest companies, but it’s a company with a passionate commitment to sponsorship and a corporate soul as well as commercial aspirations in marketing. As someone who had always wanted to get involved in sponsorship, and especially sports sponsorship, to end up working on programmes around the world in golf, rugby, tennis, polo, the arts and the environment feels like an enormous privilege. I’m a very lucky man, though it feels a long way away from my childhood dreams in Wales. Feedback: gilesmorgan@hsbc.com
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