BMI International 2022: Edinburgh, Scotland

Best known for his remarkable endurance cycle rides; circumnavigating the globe twice; and making documentaries in more than 100 countries, Marc Beaumont is a celebrated broadcaster and author, whose life experiences are beyond the imagination of most people.

Mark’s focus on record breaking and high-performance teams is balanced with a fascination in the people, places, and cultures that these journeys explore. His insights into the human condition as observed in every imaginable culture provides a perspective that few can match. What separates nations is nothing compared to what binds us.

Using this rich experience, Mark has developed a mentorship model for young people that is easily translated into the club industry and at the same time provides life coaching for us all.

Education Session with Eve Muirhead

Eve Muirhead is one of the world’s most successful curlers – most recently becoming Olympic Champion as skip for the British team in 2022 at the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022 and World Champion in the Mixed Doubles in May 2022.

She also carried the flag for her country at the 2022 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony.

She is an Olympic Champion, World Champion, European Champion and won her first Olympic bronze medal in 2014– in addition to being a highly accomplished golfer and bagpiper.

Her achievements began at an early age when she won the World Junior Curling Championships, aged just 17. She went onto win that tournament four times in total. In addition, she has performed to a consistently high standard in the World Championships – winning a silver medal in 2010, a gold in 2013 and a bronze in 2017, and in the European Championships, where she has won two bronze, four silver and three gold medals since 2010.

Eve, who was born into a farming family in Blair Atholl, has strong connections with the local area. She is a member of curling and golf clubs in Perthshire, and also regularly trains at the National Curling Academy in Stirling.

Outside of curling, Eve has piped at four World Championships, and plays off a very low handicap at golf, having turned down the opportunity to become a professional golfer in 2010. She has also received the award of Doctor of the University from Stirling University and an OBE from the British Government in recognition of her outstanding contribution to British sport.

Skills Development Scotland (SDS) is recognized internationally as a leader in career development for young people and is regarded as a major influencer in the global skills landscape. Nicola Stewardson is a senior executive for the Scottish Government department; Career Information, Advice and Guidance (CIAG) and supports field officers to assist people in developing their career management abilities. Using skills intelligence techniques and occupational psychology, young people are provided with insights and methodology that prepare them for the job market of tomorrow.

A former Scottish rugby international player, Andy is now best known for his work commentating on the game for TV and radio.

His leadership qualities were rewarded with the captaincy of the Scottish rugby team in 2000 and is perhaps best remembered for Scotland to a famous win over England that prevented them from completing a clean sweep of victories in that tournament, known as the ‘Grand Slam’.

His rugby career coincided with the professionalization of the game, and he has therefore a great insight into the difficulties faced by clubs transitioning from a domestic social activity to a multi-million-dollar business.

PGA Master Professional, Michael Braidwood, CCM was the Director of Education of CMAE from 2014 to 2017, before moving to Qatar to open Education City Golf Club. Returning to his native Scotland as CEO of Bruntsfield Links GC, Michael is one of the best-known club managers in the UK.

Michael’s brother, Keith, is a Fellow of the Master Chefs of Great Britain. He was the Chef/proprietor of Braidwood’s Restaurant in the west of Scotland which attained the coveted Michelin star in 1999, maintaining it for 21 years until his retirement in 2020. Braidwood’s established and sustained a national reputation for excellence in cuisine throughout this time.

Together, they will outline the principles and benefits of utilizing local produce, negotiating with suppliers, and sharing tips of the trade to maintain healthy margins during times of limited supply or inflation whilst still ensuring consistency and engendering loyalty.

Billy Kay is most familiar in Scotland though his work on TV and radio on the Scots language and the influence of the Scottish diaspora, but his recent work has also focused on the role clubs and societies have had on Scottish culture and history – from Freemasonry to convivial societies and sports clubs.

The Scottish Enlightenment saw some of the world’s greatest advances in science and philosophy progress in Edinburgh in the 18th century. This same movement also saw the birth of dozens of clubs in the Scottish capital, leading in turn to the birth of the golf club industry as we know it today. Many of America’s golfing pioneers came from communities along this East Coast of Scotland like St Andrews, Leith, and Carnoustie. Men from the same area also migrated to Eastern Europe in the 17th Century and created Scottish societies in countries like Poland and Russia.

Why did groups of friends choose to draw up rules and formalize their regular social activity? What benefits did these new Societies convey that could not be enjoyed without such governance?

Several hundred years may separate us from the earliest Scottish club members but the motivations that drives the need for social inclusion remain unaltered.

Billy’s book on the Scottish Diaspora, The Scottish World, would make for good reading as preparation for the BMI.

For more information on Billy Kay, visit billykay.scot

Heritage is at the heart of the All England Club and informs every aspect of its club mission, which is most famously played out in the Wimbledon Championship. But how does this respect for the past endure through the social upheavals of the last 145 years?

Rules designed to encourage respect and uphold values of commonly understood manners are at times attacked as arcane, out of touch, and irrelevant. And yet, given the high-profile nature of some of the issues faced and created by professional players on court, this is a battle worth fighting.

But how were the club rules derived? Who were the original members and what model did they copy?
Who defined ‘good’ etiquette and why?
What lessons can be learned by clubs formed more recently?
How can heritage shape social inclusion and diversity?

Is heritage fixed and intrinsic, or does a club have to constantly adapt and reinforce what their heritage means?
Does heritage form part of the club contract between members? Or is it a guide, formed by an unwritten code?
When heritage becomes political, how hard is it to defend?

About Ross: Ross has been on a journey in club management for the last twenty years experiencing single-site, multi-site, and high-performance club management. He has a unique combination of experience in both the sports and business worlds that makes him a perfect fit for his present role of Club Manager at the most prestigious tennis club in the World. His responsibility is to operate this very special club both year-round and during the Championships for his Members and a marketplace of more than a billion people interested in tennis across the world.

He excelled as a professional tennis player, beating players ranked as high as seven in world, reaching a career high ATP ranking of 232. He has trained, practiced, and played with six world number ones and competed in numerous Grand Slam and ATP Tour Events across the World.

He was the first Scot to win an ATP Challenger Tour Title, opening the door for players like Andy and Jamie Murray.  When his professional tennis career came to a natural end in 1998 he moved into the business world, initially managing a tennis program within the first club in a new business, Next Generation Clubs. 

He applied the same painstaking discipline, dedication, preparation, and professionalism to the business world. He invested himself fully in understanding how a single site operates, experiencing and working every role from the bottom up before securing his first General Manager position. Over the next six years, he ran some of the group’s largest clubs developing each from pre-opening to maturity before securing his first Group Role. The business (14 Clubs) was sold in 2006 and within a year acquired the David Lloyd Leisure Group in a £925 million deal.

In 2007, he became the Group Racquets Manager at the new David Lloyd Leisure business and was responsible for encouraging and developing the tennis of 180,000 members in 76 clubs across Europe, managing a team of more than 500 coaches. He was responsible for the largest commercial club tennis program in the world which included “Tennis All Stars” with more than 15,000 children playing tennis weekly in a standardized program.

From 2011, he spent three years as the Performance Network Manager at the Lawn Tennis Association responsible for the funding, structure, and development of the Governing Body’s Performance Program. 

In June 2015, he became Club Manager at the most prestigious tennis club in the World and has been immersed in the very highest standards of detail and operational performance. This has connected with his natural fascination with excellence and allowed focus on “detail and exceptional customer service, “a luxury which has been ill afforded in previous roles.

Graduated in Medicine at Glagsow in 1963, he moved to London to work with Nobel-Prize winner Sir Peter Medawar from 1969 before returning to Glasgow as consultant surgeon in 1976.

Positions at Oxford University's Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, the transplant unit at Baghdad's Ibn Al-Bitar Hospital were followed by a return to Glasgow as director of the Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine.

Moving to St Andrews in 2004, he was an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Bute Medical School and also a medical panel member for the Appeals Tribunal Service. 

His books include The Scottish Golf Guide, Golf – Scotland’s Game and the letterpress self-printed Partick Press series on early golf. Also The Healers - A History of Scottish Medicine (1983), The Monkey Gland Affair (1986), A History of Organ Transplantation (2012) and The Flawed Genius of Alexis Carrel (2016).

Served on the golf heritage committees of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club and the United States Golf Association.

Jules Murray is well known to the CMAE, being a regular presenter for four years. A qualified NLP practitioner, she specializes in training and mentoring people to attain a positive outlook and improve their professional impact.

Jules will outline the gender specific issues faced by women in leadership positions within the club industry and provide practical help on how to overcome the challenges of relationships, competition, stereotyping, and female misogyny.

Wendy Chamberlain was elected as the MP for North East Fife (which includes St Andrews) in 2019 and Deputy Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats since 2021. She is the Chief Whip of the Liberal Democrats and the Spokesperson for Pensions, Scotland and Wales having previously served as the Spokesperson for Northern Ireland and International Development.

Her career includes twelve years as a police officer, college lecturer, and manager for Diageo.

Her mother was Secretary for Greenock Golf Club, but her sporting passion is the Scottish game of Shinty (similar to Irish Hurling and hockey). She is the first female director to be elected to the Camanachd Association, which is the governing body for Shinty.

Elaine Farquharson-Black won both the Scottish Girls and Ladies' Amateur Championships, as well as the Helen Holm Strokeplay Championship. Runner up twice in the British Girls' Amateur and beaten in the final on the British Amateur, she enjoyed international honours for Scotland at all levels from girls through under 21s and ladies from 1982 to 1998, being part of several winning teams.

Elaine also represented Great Britain & Ireland in a number of international matches from 1989 to 1992, including winning the Vagliano Trophy Match (1989 and 91); the Commonwealth (now Astor) Trophy (1991); and the Curtis Cup (1992). Along with Helen Dobson, Elaine won the World Fourball Championship on Brazil in 1989. After a brief spell as a professional, Elaine obtained further international honours for Scotland in 1997 and 1998 before retiring to have family.

On her retirement from playing competitive golf, Elaine became non-playing captain of the Scottish ladies' team (2001-2003, 2005); the GB&I Junior Vagliano team (2013); the GB&I Astor Trophy team (2015); the GB&I Vagliano Trophy team (2015, 2017); and the GB&I Curtis Cup team (2016, 2018). Elaine is currently the only British player to both play in and captain a winning GB&I Curtis Cup team (1992 and 2016).

A partner in a successful Scottish law firm, Elaine was the first female Captain of Deeside Golf Club from 2020-2022.

Maggie Alphonsi is the face of international women’s rugby and arguably one of the most well-known names in women’s team sports on the planet. Before announcing her international retirement in 2014, she represented her country an impressive 74 times, scored 28 tries, won a World Cup and helped England win a record breaking seven consecutive Six Nations crowns.

Through her England rugby career, she has become a household name but also a media professional, and since retiring she has commentated on live rugby matches, and featured in a diverse array of media outlets, from Stella Magazine, to BBC’s Children in Need and The One Show.