Roger Thompson is the head of the UK arm of JP Morgan Asset Management, who have sponsored the Round The Island race for the last six years and have just signed another three year contract to support it.
VB caught up with him this afternoon at the launch of Round The Island to chat about why JP Morgan is involved and to hear about how they arrange this for their clients.
As well as brand-building for them, the event provides an opportunity for them to invite a lot of their clients along.
Over the years they’ve honed how the clients are involved, moving to them all now taking part in sailing in the race and being naturally competitive, JP Morgan charter a fleet of identical 40.7 boats for them all to sail on.
By providing a level playing field for themselves and their clients, this is an opportunity for JP Morgan to carry out a race within a race.
Roger revealed that over the last two years, the same chartered boat has won, so to ensure a level playing field this year, which crews go in which boats, was decided by pulling them out of a hat.
Come 5am they’ll all be getting ready to go.
Have a listen to Roger chatting about it …
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/roger-thompson-round-the-island-2010-sponsorship.mp3]
