Our Lifetime Achievement Award has, in the past, gone to the likes of John Haynes and Joe Elliott, people who have created their companies from the ground up.
Brian Spratt, our winner for this year, is very different. Rather than ensuring his own company success, Spratt has seen to it that others can flourish by championing the interests and image integrity of the independent aftermarket.
Could Spratt have imagined that he would end up as Chief Executive of the IAAF when he started as Trade Secretary of it’s precusor, the ADF, 22 years ago. It would appear not.
“I only thought I’d be here for a couple of years,” he says. “I’d been out of work for a period after leaving a sales job – I’m a crap salesman because I can only sell something if I believe in it.
“Me and Madeleine, my wife, sat down and looked at the horizon, at what I could do, and the ADF seemed to have it all.
“Selling the industry, representing the aftermarket, that was easy because I believed in it.
“It needs to maintain the very best in quality and service going forward–there’s no room for anything else.
“Get that right and the future’s looking good for the industry. It’s full of really great people, and I shall miss them.”
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