The Professional Triathletes Organisation announced a new Executive Chairman: Chris Kermode. Kermode has been involved with the PTO’s Board of Directors since July 2020 and is an experienced administrator in the sports’ world. Kermode takes over from Charles Adamo, who’s been Executive Chairman since 2016, but now steps down.
Kermode rolled into the world of sports as a professional tennis player (1985-1988), but later he worked in various leadership positions within the tennis industry. Kermode was, for instance, Executive Chairman and President of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), where he was responsible for promoting tennis to the next generation of fans, and attracting a new and wider audience through innovative broadcasting.
His work included transforming the ATP season final at the London O2 Arena into one of the largest, most successful indoor tennis events in the world. Also, he was part of the launching of the Next Gen Finals, which showcases the best under-21-year-old tennis players in the world. Besides these successes, the prize purse within tennis has increased with more than 70 percent in Kermode’s years.
“It is a privilege to be given the opportunity to help accelerate the PTO’s mission and support the PTO Professionals. Over the last two years, we have made great strides in establishing our events and lifting the triathlon broadcasts to the next level”, Kermode says about his appointment. “The PTO business model and the triathlon market is compelling, with many similarities to professional tennis, which began to boom once the professionals started to act together to promote the sport through expanding their fan base. Professional triathlon has enormous potential to develop into a mainstream sport. This will require a unified front from the professionals and aligned interests with the commercial partners. That is why the unique ownership structure of the PTO, where the professionals and investors have ownership interests in the success of the venture, is so valuable and why I am confident that the PTO can be the catalyst that turns triathlon into a success and a mainstream sport.”
