This is my story! by Michel Hodara – CEO of AC Management

(Lausanne 24 July 2008) - Sebastien Destremau: Michel Hodara, you have a reputation of being very secretive however can you enlight us the reason of your departure?
Michel Hodara: There is not one but multiple reasons actually. The most important one is very personal and probably a bit selfish. Somebody offered me a job that I really wanted to accept. This is a complete change in my career as I am moving out of the sport and event management to move into the Television Entertainment Business. This is something I am very interested in and I look forward to the challenge ahead of me.

SD: Would a better question be: why did you stay after the huge success of the 32nd America's Cup?
MH: Well, I was very proud of what we achieved back then however I believed we could improve on some of the areas and I really wanted to deliver these improvements with the 33rd before moving on. This was in July 2007. Now, things have changed and considering the current state of uncertainty, the people who called me found an available ear.

SD: How did Ernesto Bertarelli took the news?
MH:. After having worked with Ernesto for eight years, I was actually very nervous about informing him of my decision. To the point of wondering if I was going to be asked to leave my phone, laptop and be walked to the door! (laugh). More seriously, he was very « elegant » and understood my decision. We agreed I would continue to fulfill my responsibilities for some time and I feel honored to have kept his trust.

SD: This leads us to America's Cup Management. How does it operate and what is its state today?
MH: Back in March 2008, it was decided to join ACM and Alinghi forces on the operational side. ACM is solely an event management company and as the CEO, my responsability is to organise the 33rd America's Cup however one would agree that there is little tangible to organise at this point.

We also implemented a Management Board whose primary role is to manage the direction of Alinghi/ACM wih Brad Butterworth (Sailing), Grant Simmer (Design and Boat Building), Lucien Masmejean (Legal) and myself(Marketing/Admin). So despite my departure, the management structure is only little affected.

The knowledge of the 32nd is still there and I am very confident in the team in place. For example Paco's role in the organisation will remain unchanged.

SD: Alinghi/ACM's reputation has been tainted since the end of the 32nd America's Cup, why? And do you think you played a role in this? This question is also directed to Paco.
MH: The bucks stops with the CEO, so you can assume that I am ultimately responsible for it. There is no doubts that we've made some PR mistakes after July 2007 but the problem is much older than that. Our philosophy since 2003 was always deliver the best possible event with the best facilities. Sometimes we had to make rules for the better running of the event that were not always very popular and we didn’t take the time to explain them properly to the community.

Paco Latorre: In the case of the media, one would agree that we put a big effort in providing good technical services and always worked hard on being efficient; however we too often didn’t do very well in the relationships with the journalists and the rest of the AC community. So long as we were producing an impeccable event, basically applauded by everybody, everything was fine. But what a price we paid as soon as some mistakes were made after the event!!

I must say that in the transition after the 32nd AC, Michel and myself were very concious about this insufficient care of the relationship with the people within the America's Cup community (the local people in Valencia, the teams and the media) and there were things that we wanted to do differently.It’s still an objective to improve this area.

SD: From a sponsorship point of view, it would appear that you have none. How can this be and where are you at?
MH: You have two different sides to this question: the event and the team
Event: At the moment, we do not have a product. No date, no venue, no event. The 33rd America's Cup does not exist yet in term of sponsorship product to sell. We accept this.

It is like if you own a bakery and you have no bread to sell. You wouldn't feel pressured not having customers, would you?

We however have some interested companies so we keep talking for now! And remember one thing, the 33rd America's Cup will barely be comparable to the 32nd last year.

Team: There is no announcement yet however Alinghi is in the advanced stage of negotiation with several partners whom are about to sign very soon. Announcements will come in due course and we are on schedule.

SD: Is there anything you would like to add in conclusion?
PL: I'd like to say that nowadays we are all very stressed about the present; however time always put everything and everybody’s roles and responsabilities back into place. In this case, it will take some time to give its real value to what was done for the 32nd AC following Ernesto Bertarelli’s vision and also to make a judgment of what has been going on since July 2007.

MH: We tried and managed to position the America's Cup on the Large Sport Event world’s stage. It always sadden me to see that some prefer to demolish something simply because they are not the one who did it, rather than participate in something the world praise.

SD: Thankyou both for your time today and all the best in your future endeavour Michel.