Chris Townsend (businessman)

Townsend was part of the successful London 2012 Olympic bid team in his previous role as Marketing Director at Transport for London (TfL). The Chairman of the London 2012 Olympic bid, Sir Keith Mills, encouraged Townsend to apply for the Commercial Director role.[3]

In June 2006, Townsend was appointed as Commercial Director by the London 2012 Organising Committee of the Olympic Games.[6] He was responsible for domestic sponsorship, ticket marketing and merchandising of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, including the development and management of the London 2012 marketing programme 2006-2010. He also led the negotiation of worldwide broadcast rights and sponsorship for the games with the International Olympic Committee.[5] Townsend had the responsibility for generating £2.4 billion to prepare and stage the Olympic Games in London in 2012.[7][8] He was listed in The London 100 Secret Power Brokers, having signed 44 domestic partners without which the London 2012 Olympic Games would not be possible. During the last five years, Townsend signed leading brands including Lloyds Bank, British Airways, BT and EDF Energy. The financial support from these partners has also helped to finance grass-roots sporting activity which will develop future Olympic competitors.[9] In 2011, portraits of sports stars and the people that helped organise the London 2012 games were unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery, including a photo of Townsend.[10]

In 2012 Townsend became commercial director of the London Resort project, a Paramount Pictures theme park in Kent which was planned to open by 2018.[11] He described it as "the country’s biggest and most exciting regeneration project".

Townsend was appointed CEO of Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) in January 2014.[12] He oversaw a £1 billion investment in improving broadband internet access and mobile infrastructure, with the ambition to provide super-fast broadband (speeds of 24Mbit/s or more) for at least 95% of UK premises and universal access to basic broadband (speeds of at least 2Mbit/s).[13] He managed a Government investment of £150 million to support UK cities to develop the digital infrastructure capability to remain internationally competitive and attractive for investors, business and visitors. The Permanent Secretary at DCMS, Sue Owen, described Townsend' appointment as, “in line with [Treasury minister] Lord Deighton’s review of big government infrastructure projects”, which recommended bringing in commercial expertise to fill capability gaps and ensure that key projects are delivered successfully.[14] In February 2015, Townsend announced that BDUK was set to reach its target of 95 percent coverage by 2017, which was achieved by December 2017.[15] Townsend reported to the Secretary of State and Permanent Secretary at DCMS and was an executive member of the DCMS Board. As Board Director at DCMS, he sat on the Finance Committee, overseeing the approval of Government investment in major projects across the 44 Arm’s Length Bodies.

In May 2017, Townsend was appointed Commercial Director of Chelsea F.C. following the departure of Christian Purslow.[16] The news was confirmed by Secretary of State for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport Karen Bradley who praised Townsend for growing the UK's broadband coverage to over 93% in the three years he was CEO of BDUK.[17] Head of the British Civil Service, Jeremy Heywood, thanked Townsend for his leadership and described his work as "commercial expertise at its best".[18] As Commercial Director, Townsend would be responsible for all of Chelsea's commercial programmes, including global sponsorship, ticketing, digital revenues, licensing and merchandise, the two Chelsea F.C hotels, restaurants and catering. Townsend was responsible for developing and launching the ambitious Commercial Strategy 2017-2027. [19]

From April to July 2020, Townsend served as CEO of the Government's Shielding Programme, initially supporting over 1.5 million (later increased to 2.25 million) Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) patients during the COVID-19 pandemic in England. [20] This was a voluntary unpaid role at the request of the Cabinet Office via John Manzoni, CEO of the Civil Service, during which Townsend stepped back from his post at Chelsea Football Club. [21] He was responsible for the planning, implementation and daily management of the national and local Shielding Programme supporting CEV patients for 4 months with Free Food Box Deliveries, Medicine and Social Care. Townsend was awarded a CBE in recognition of his services to the Clinically Extremely Vulnerable in her Majesty the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in June 2021.

Townsend became a senior partner at KPMG and Head of KPMG’s Infrastructure, Government, Defence and Healthcare (IGH) practice. Townsend leads the governance and delivery of a wide range of Government projects and contracts supporting the Government and wider public sector and leads the development of KPMG’s vision for the IGH market.