Potential Olympic bid has a name

Calgary 2026 is up and running. Work on a possible bid for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games is shifting to a bid corporation incorporated under that name just days ago.

Bidco chair Scott Hutcheson, a commercial real estate mogul and former national-team skier, was introduced Tuesday to a Calgary city council committee overseeing bid work currently done by a city project team.

Hutcheson said he intends to resign from various boards — including Own The Podium and Calgary’s WinSport — to avoid perceived conflict of interest with his new position.

He will, however, remain on the board of Aspen Properties, the company he co-founded.

“I wouldn’t put myself in a conflict of interest position, but perception is everything,” Hutcheson told reporters at city hall.

“Secondly I don’t have the time to do that community work on many community boards as well as the way I want to work at this.”

The bid corporation board — which will include representation from the city, provincial and federal governments, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, Canmore, Alta., and Indigenous communities — will meet Thursday.

The first priority of Calgary 2026 is to hire a chief executive officer, he said.

Hutcheson, who is a volunteer chair, told the committee the job of CEO will require an extraordinarily energetic person.

“I think it’s an 80-hour-a-week job right now and I don’t want any CEO coming into the interview process without that as an objective,” he told the committee.

“I think we’ve got some good candidates, both genders, on the potential CEO list today.”

Hutcheson wants a CEO that complements his skill set.

“Hopefully we know how to divide and conquer,” Hutcheson said. “As a board chair, that I’ve been fairly experienced at doing, my job is to be eyes in and fingers out and help develop strategy, but not be day to day in the hair of our chief executive officer.”