2032 Olympic organizers hold first board meeting in Brisbane

The Brisbane 2032 organizing committee held its first board meeting on Wednesday, more than 10 years before the Australian east coast city is due to host the Olympics.

International Olympic Committee vice president John Coates met with organizing committee president Andrew Liveris, and with the political leaders and former athletes who’ve already been appointed to the board.

Liveris, a former chairman and CEO of Dow Chemical, an Olympic sponsor, said important early priorities for the board were to appoint a chief executive officer and start securing domestic and international sponsorship.

“There’s a lot of input to get the planning right for what is in fact 10 years away, so that of course means we’ve got to recruit a CEO,” he told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday. “And that’s very, very key.”

The Brisbane bid, which includes venues in the neighboring Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, and Ipswich regions, was selected by the IOC last year as host for the 2032 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The scheduled dates for the Olympics that year are July 23-Aug. 8.

Australia has hosted the Olympics twice, at Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000.