Former Parkrun Global chief took secret commission payments from supplier
PARKRUN is a huge global movement made possible by thousands of volunteers who give their time for free.
But that has not protected the movement from financial scandal.
It’s a sad irony given that founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt once told the Guardian newspaper he ‘wanted to take on all the people making so much money out of running’.
In February the chief of Parkrun Global, Nick Pearson, apologised and resigned after admitting he’d received secret commission payments from a clothing supplier to the charity.
He told followers in a tweet: ‘I have let a lot of people down and I understand the disappointment and anger.
‘Rebuilding trust will be a very long process, but I commit to doing everything I can to make this happen. I will continue to fully co-operate with Parkrun’s legal representatives.’
The secret payments were discovered by new chief, Russ Jefferys, who reported the matter to the charity’s trustees. Mr Jefferys had previously been the charity’s head of communications.
Parkrun in turn reported the undisclosed ‘conflict of interest’ to the Charity Commission.
Pearson ultimately repaid £73,555 (€85,726) in commission fees that he had received on top of his £150,000 (€175,000) salary.
The secret commissions received by Pearson were paid by a supplier linked to CONTRA, the charity’s subsidiary apparel brand whose profits help support Parkrun events.
CONTRA sells running gear and was set up by Pearson and others at Parkrun.
When the scandal emerged, Gavin Megaw, the Chair of Trustees for Parkrun Global, accused Pearson of ‘a breach of
trust’. He wrote in a blog: ‘We discovered that our previous chief executive officer, Nick Pearson, had an undisclosed and unapproved agreement by which he was receiving a commission from a third-party supplier in regard to the creation of the clothing brand CONTRA in 2018.
‘At no point was this conflict of interest disclosed to the trustees or anyone else involved in Parkrun.’
Pearson’s secret consultancy agreement was a replica of an agreement that had been approved for Parkrun and CONTRA Founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt.
However, Pearson never declared that he had created the same agreement for himself.
Once the issue was discovered,
Parkrun considered civil and criminal action but decided to focus on recovering the lost funds.
In addition to repaying the money the charity had foregone, Pearson also paid the cost of the investigation into the affair. As part of a move to strengthen governance and avoid any conflicts of interest, founder Paul Sinton-Hewitt resigned as a trustee in June this year.
Mr Sinton-Hewitt’s consultancy agreement with CONTRA also ended in June.
A year before the secret commission scandal erupted, it was revealed that Mr SintonHewitt had been paid more than £200,000 (€234,000) since 2018, for promoting Parkrun.
In addition, his wife is employed with Parkrun on a salary of £37,000 (€43,000) which is declared in the charity’s accounts as a related party transaction.
Mr Sinton-Hewitt declined to respond to requests for comment when contacted by the Irish Mail on Sunday this week, beyond texting to ask that our queries go through the charity’s press office.
Meanwhile, in August this year details of a critical internal Parkrun report emerged.
The report concluded Parkrun had operated as a ‘boys’ club’ under previous management, with key decisions made at the pub.