Dexter Paine onboard to navigate new FIS direction alongside Eliasch

Dexter Paine expresses enthusiasm, optimism and eagerness to roll up his sleeves and get to work with newly elected FIS president Johan Eliasch, as skiing’s governing body opens a new chapter in 2021.

The American, Paine — a FIS vice president and Council member since 2014 — believes that with new leadership in place, substantive change in governance, methods and vision will follow. Eliasch was elected by the National Ski Association member nations, receiving 65 of 119 votes cast (54.6%) on the first ballot of the first-ever FIS virtual election on June 4.

“I was a very outspoken supporter of Johan – I’ve known Johan for a long time in the industry and quite frankly never thought he would run for this position, but it was a very clear choice,” Paine tells Ski Racing Media.

“Three candidates were much more traditional and advocated change, but significantly slower and more measured change, while Johan was a guy who said ‘we have an opportunity here’ and quite frankly has hit the ground running.”

The New York business executive and former chairman of U.S. Ski & Snowboard (who served 13 years from 2006 – 2019) asserts that, with Eliasch at the helm, change is forthcoming.

“The magnitude of that change is something that we will have to work on over the next 90 days, but I think we’ll see significant change,” Paine says. “I think we’ll see greater transparency, we’ll see more women and small nations involved in the governance process, which is all really positive.”

Paine and the new FIS Council, which convened virtually for the first time on June 22, have already approved an online extraordinary Congress on Sept. 22 with key business planned.

“That special Congress is going to focus on voting on many of the reforms that we’ve been advocating for over the last eight years,” Paine informs.

“I think that kind of initiative and willingness to do what he said he was going to do in his platform has been really impressive,” Paine says of Eliasch, who vowed to step down from his position as chief executive officer of the Head Group, upon taking over the FIS presidency.

Paine and colleagues introduced a package of reform proposals in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020, including more frequent board meetings, term limits, increased transparency and a restructured role for the president. The reforms were never adopted under the former FIS president Gian Franco Kasper, who died earlier this month.

Honoring Gian Franco Kasper

Paine paid tribute to the nearly five-decade commitment, achievements and transformation in many areas, despite resistance to change in others, that Kasper brought to the organization and sport.

“He gave his heart and soul for the last 23 years – he had an encyclopedic memory and knowledge of the sport,” Paine said.

“It’s really sad – here’s a guy whose whole life was wrapped up in FIS and we never got a chance to say thank you,” Paine said, noting the cancellations of the FIS Congress and other meetings due to the pandemic.

“If you look at what he did in terms of growing our sport – both in terms of Olympic medals, number of athletes represented by FIS at the Olympics, the number of sports and size of the World Cup, it’s pretty extraordinary.

“We actually all think of him as being conservative, but the fact is the sport grew significantly and today we represent more than 50 percent of the medals at the Winter Olympics and you have to give him credit.

“He was also a really moral and ethical guy – we never had scandals and some of the issues that the other federations have had.

“He was just genuine – he was Gian Franco Kasper. We will miss him desperately.”

New opportunities in North America?

With former Alpine Canada president Ken Read losing his bid for election to the FIS Council, Paine, a former NCAA ski racer at Williams College in Massachusetts, remains as the only North American representative on the board.

“It’s unfortunate for the Canadians that Ken wasn’t elected, but I think Johan has a huge a commitment to the success all of our sports in North America,” Paine says.

“I hope the Canadians will put forward another candidate next year and we will have another voice, but I’m not worried about our voices being heard,” Paine says, referring to the joint effort between the neighboring countries. “I’m a pretty outspoken individual and we now have a leader who is much more open to the success of North America.

“I think both Johan and (new FIS secretary general) Michel (Vion) understand and appreciate the need for us to have our sports be successful in the U.S., considering the size of the industry and television market,” Paine said.

“The biggest reason to be optimistic is that our new leadership team is more open to sharing and having events in North America, as well as understanding how important the success of our sports in North America is to the success of the sports globally,” says the New Hampshire native.

Among his myriad of roles and responsibilities, Paine led the first-ever strategic planning effort for FIS, serves on the finance committee, and is a member of the working groups for gender equality and governance reform.

“I think every organization needs a strategic plan and we’ve never had one,” Paine said.

The strategic plan that he championed four years ago was never adopted.

“I’ve always thought that we weren’t maximizing opportunities for the organization,” he said.

However, Paine is bullish on the direction FIS appears headed.

“We have incredible people on the Council, and Johan’s willingness to outsource work to others is great.

“We have people who are incredibly knowledgeable about snowboard, freeski, Nordic and alpine,” Paine says, while suggesting competitions across the various disciplines can and need to be improved.

Finances, marketing and media rights

Paine is balancing work and responsibilities between FIS and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. He was recently appointed to the USOPC Board of Directors, where he also began serving as a National Governing Bodies Council representative in January 2021. 

Considering his more than 30 years of business and investment experience, having co-founded Paine and Partners in 2006, the FIS vice president seems to be more than qualified to suggest how the organization should spend its vast cash reserves, which are in the neighborhood of 150 million Swiss Francs ($163 million).

“One of the things I advocated for is that those very significant cash reserves need to be focused on our athletes – more prize money, focus on athlete’s safety and I think Johan is absolutely focused on that.

“We also need to invest into our sport – we need to make sure we are keeping our formats up to date.”

Paine also advocates for change in the FIS marketing strategy and structure.

“FIS marketing is 51 percent owned by FIS and 49 percent owned by Infront and that is a structure that I’ve always questioned in terms of, ‘Is this best for FIS?’ “We need to take a hard look at our media rights and how those are handled. The good news is Johan is willing to step back and say let’s take a look at this and how can we maximize the value of everything that we have.

“After we maximize the value, let’s figure out how we increase distribution to athletes, member countries and really try to make FIS less conservative,” Paine said.

Follow Brian on Twitter – @Brian_Pinelli