Agnes
He’s an exceptional leader. Peter Ueberroth had run an international travel network. One of his special mindsets was a very meritocratic approach to women and men, both young and old, giving them a chance to see if they could perform at a high level.
And when he was tapped for running the LAOC, the main genius that he was bringing to this job was leadership with a very encompassing international lens, a network of strong connections, broad cross-cultural experience and a strategic business approach.
One of his tests for us, for example, was to provide us with some questions about what’s going on in different parts of the world. So, he would make sure that we would not be a provincial organization. And that reflected who he was. And of course, he was also an excellent businessman and found ways, with the help of thousands of volunteers in LA and throughout California, to diffuse this fear that the Olympics had to cause a country and a city a huge financial loss.
Thanks to his totally new funding model, we actually ended up being profitable. There is still a foundation that allows young athletes to benefit from that legacy. So, Peter provided a huge leadership impact in running the LAOOC. All of us were there because of him. And there also was this very clever and pragmatic business element to his persona.
Bill
How did you catch his attention?
Agnes
Well, he paid attention and always had an interest in how to deploy each particular person in the best possible manner, deploying their best strengths. This was a big part of his genius as a leader. I was in charge of turning hundreds of volunteer multilingual locals and California residents into translators. That was my first job. So, I had some exposure to Peter before the Soviets declared a boycott of the games.
