Lemley and the 2012 Games

Mihir Bose, writing in the Daily Telegraph, did this piece about Amercan businessman, Jack Lemley, ODA Chairman.

"Lemley quits through ill health" By Mihir Bose


Sources close to the organisers of the 2012 London Olympic Games have told the Daily Telegraph that the reason for the resignation of Jack Lemley, chairman of the Olympic Development Authority — the body responsible for venues and infrastructure — was due to ill health and problems created by having to commute between America and Britain.
Lemley, who was responsible for the Channel Tunnel project, had been appointed last year and at his press conference promised that he would set up home in London. Although he rented a flat there he still travelled back to the United States where he has extensive business interests.
Lemley has also recently had some heart trouble and the strain of constantly jetting back and forth across the Atlantic took its toll.

I'm told matters came to a head quite quickly about 10 days ago when it was decided that it would be best if he resigned.

One source told me: "It is now widely recognised that Jack Lemley was not the right choice and we will have to make sure that the next chairman of the ODA is the right one."
It is not unusual for cities that stage Olympic Games to change the top personnel. The London 2012 bid for the Games also saw a major change of personnel when, a year after the bid was launched — and with London ranked a poor third to Paris and Madrid — Barbara Cassani, the bid leader, resigned and was replaced by Seb Coe, who took London to victory.
One source said: "The difference is Barbara's resignation was well flagged inside London 2012 whereas Lemley's has come up very suddenly and caught many people by surprise."

Late last night, television news suggested that Lemley had resigned and returned to Idaho for quite different reasons. One was to do with the compulsory purchase of land and property in East London. Apparently Jack couldn't cope ( and I'm paraphrasing here) with the internecine wars going on between local politicians.

This is so typical of our country isn't it. Petty-minded individuals trying to put their "inconsequential two-bobsworth in". But of course there will be consequences. Inevitable delays to the construction of the 2012 site, budget goes through the roof, blah, blah, blah - and who'll pick up the tab - you've guessed it.