In this episode, Sherry Bevan talks with Jon Massie about leadership, turning values into everyday behaviour, and what it really takes to lead a global team working in a fast-moving environment where the stakes are high.

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Episode 14: Turning values into everyday behaviours

Guest: Jon Massie, Chief People Officer and Technical Officer – SailGP

Sherry Bevan: Today’s guest is Jon Massie, Chief People and Technical Officer at SailGP, where he leads the league’s global people strategy alongside its technical and engineering operations. Jon has played a central role in scaling SailGP through rapid international growth, building high-performance teams and aligning culture with commercial success.

Previously, Jon held senior roles at the LTA and the Rugby Football Union. He was part of the recruitment leadership team delivering workforce operations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

He specialises in organisational transformation, performance culture and driving growth in complex sporting environments.

So, a very warm welcome to you, Jon.

Jon: Nice to chat.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I’m curious to hear about your career background and how you came to be in your current role because you don’t come directly from a sporting background. Tell us about how you got to where you are now.

Yeah, absolutely. I’d say I have a fairly modest amateur sporting pedigree. Sport has always been a huge part of my life. Football, athletics – it’s always been something I’ve been incredibly passionate about and it still takes up a lot of my time outside work.

I was fortunate enough to fall into an opportunity to work in sport back in 2009. I was due to leave my employer at the time when they offered me the chance to stay and work on-site within the recruitment function for London 2012.

The opportunity to be involved in the biggest sporting event on the planet, in my home city, was something I simply couldn’t turn down. From there, the rest is history.

Wow, that’s amazing. I was one of the Games Makers. London 2012 was such an incredible experience and holds so many happy memories.

Talk to us about your current role. The Chief People Officer part is fairly straightforward, but what does it mean to be the Technical Officer as well?

It’s a great question because it’s not the most common combination.

A couple of years ago, we moved our entire engineering and build facility from New Zealand to the UK. SailGP not only manages and delivers the championship, but we also build and design the F50 catamarans that race in the series.

We used to have a facility north of Auckland, but for a number of reasons we relocated the operation to Southampton. My role now oversees that operation and supports the leadership structure across the various technical teams.

I can’t claim to contribute much mechanical engineering expertise, but hopefully what I’ve been able to bring is leadership support. We’ve got a brilliant team in Southampton, and many of those people travel around the world putting the boats on the water and making sure the show goes on.

That’s two very different roles, but I can see how the leadership side connects them. I hadn’t realised that SailGP actually builds the boats as well.

It’s one of the things that makes us different. People often describe SailGP as Formula One on water, and in some ways that’s true.

The key difference is that all of the boats are exactly the same when they hit the water. Our team ensures every F50 is measured and engineered to the same standard, so success comes down to the skill of the athletes and the decisions they make on the water.

That’s why you see so many different winners and such exciting racing.

That’s fascinating because in many sports the equipment itself can create an advantage. Here, everyone starts with the same boat, so it’s really about athletic ability and performance.

For people who aren’t familiar with SailGP, tell us a bit more about how it works.

Absolutely.

We were founded in 2018 off the back of the America’s Cup. Essentially, we’re redefining sailing.

Many people think of sailing as something calm and leisurely, but SailGP takes it to another level. Using foiling technology, the boats literally fly above the water at speeds of more than 100 kilometres an hour.

We race identical F50 catamarans in a nation-versus-nation format. In our first season in 2019, we had six teams competing across five events. We’re now entering Season Six with thirteen teams and thirteen events around the world.

We build the boats, race them, pack them into containers, ship them to the next destination and do it all again. It’s been an incredible period of growth.

Beyond racing, we’re focused on creating a positive legacy through sustainability, ocean health and gender equity. We truly believe that many of the roles on the boat can be performed equally by men and women.

Alongside the sporting championship, we also run the Impact League, where teams compete on the difference they make on and off the water.

The fact that you pack everything up and move it around the world makes me think about the scale of the logistical challenge. Does that sit within your remit as Technical Officer?

Partly, yes.

We have a pit crew of around 120 people responsible for putting the boats on the water. That’s made up of boat builders, electronic technicians, hydraulic technicians and on-water safety teams.

They’re responsible for taking the F50s out of their containers, assembling them, running system checks and launching them. After racing, they dismantle and pack everything away again.

The boats are then handed over to our events operations and logistics teams, who manage transport to the next destination.

It’s a real team effort. One of the things I’ve always loved about major sporting events is seeing teams come together under intense time pressure and deliver something extraordinary.

There are certainly a lot of moving parts.

One thing that interests me is the global nature of SailGP. You’re racing all over the world and working with people in different countries. How does that influence your approach to leadership and culture?

It’s a great question.

As we’ve grown as a league, we’ve had to evolve continuously. One of the most important leadership capabilities has been change management.

In the early days, one global team could manage our events and operations. Today we have our headquarters in London, offices in New York, Auckland and Sydney, and a combination of regional and travelling teams.

That means balancing remote leadership with in-person leadership while continually evolving roles and responsibilities as the organisation scales.

One thing I’ve consistently seen in sport is the ambition and commitment people bring. Individuals often step beyond their formal job descriptions to solve problems and support each other. Watching teams come together under pressure is one of the most rewarding parts of the job.

How do cultural differences show up in day-to-day working? You’re dealing with people in different countries and different disciplines.

You see it in lots of ways. There are geographical challenges, time-zone challenges and different professional backgrounds.

You might be speaking with an engineer one minute and a marketing manager in another country the next, yet you’re trying to communicate the same core message.

We’ve learned the importance of simplicity and clarity. In the early seasons it was very much about moving at a million miles an hour and getting things done. Now, as we enter Season Six, our focus is much more on planning, learning from what we’ve experienced and using those insights to guide the future.

Everyone here is ambitious, which is fantastic, but we can’t do everything. We’ve had to become much clearer about our vision, our mission and what we’re trying to achieve each season.

Otherwise, you end up taking on too much and reducing your overall impact.

So we focus on making things simple, ensuring people understand how the bigger picture relates to their role, and helping every part of the organisation understand that they play a vital role in our success.

You mentioned the passion and ambition people bring. In many sports organisations, people love what they do so much that they risk overworking. How do you manage burnout?

I’d actually say not everyone at SailGP is necessarily a sailing fan. There are lots of different reasons people are attracted to the organisation – sport, racing, technology, data and innovation among them.

But you’re absolutely right that when people love what they do, their instinct is often to throw themselves into it completely.

That’s why one of our core values is Strike a Balance. We recognised that from the beginning.

We know events can be intense and fast-paced, so we’ve put a number of things in place to help people maintain that balance. We treat people like adults. We trust them to deliver.

We also have recharge days where the entire business shuts down once a quarter, a flexible holiday policy, company shutdown periods and other initiatives designed to help people recover.

We want people to bring energy and commitment, but we also want them to arrive with fully charged batteries.

It links back to what you said earlier. If you try to do too much, you’re not making the biggest impact.

Exactly.

In a growing business, it’s important not only to focus on what’s directly in front of you but also to look ahead. When people are exhausted, they naturally become more reactive.

Some repetition and routine are helpful, but you also need the headspace to think about what’s next. What might make you more efficient? What could improve performance? What decisions do you need to make now for the future?

As we’re growing, many of the things that work today won’t work in three years’ time. So how do we make the right decisions now that support where we’re heading?

That’s really interesting. How do you know when it’s time to change a process or rethink the way you’re operating?

Often it’s when you find yourself making the same mistakes repeatedly and not moving forward.

Over the last six to twelve months we’ve spent a lot of time developing our next five-year strategy, which we launched to the business last week.

We actually flew everyone to the UK because we felt it was important to get people aligned around where we’re heading and how we’ll get there.

Once you’ve defined where you want to be in five years, you can work backwards and ask whether today’s structures, processes and ways of working will still get you there.

It’s not necessarily about making wholesale changes immediately. It’s about identifying the adjustments you can make now that will help you become the organisation you want to be.

We’re no longer a startup. I’d describe us as being in a scale-up phase. The passion, ambition and willingness to roll up our sleeves got us this far, but growth creates opportunities for greater efficiency and effectiveness. You have to be willing to address those opportunities when they emerge.

You’ve already mentioned Strike a Balance. What about your other values? One of the conversations we often have in the Team Culture Club is how organisations bring their values to life rather than simply displaying them on a wall.

Stand Together is another really important value for us.

We have so many different departments and specialisms across the organisation, but I probably see that value come to life more than any other, especially during events. People aren’t confined to their own boxes. They step up, support each other and work together to solve challenges.

We’ve also recently evolved one of our values. For the first five years we had Break Boundaries. We’ve now refreshed that into Make It Count and Evolve With Focus.

Innovation remains hugely important to us, but we’ve recognised that not every good idea can become a priority. We need to focus our energy where it will make the greatest impact.

For example, within engineering we now use structured frameworks and scoring systems to evaluate innovation opportunities and decide which ones deserve attention first.

We reinforce our values through quarterly awards, peer recognition programmes and leadership awards. We deliberately celebrate people who live those values every day, including those whose contributions might not always be visible.

Our CEO regularly uses the language of our values, and we talk about them in leadership meetings and throughout the business. We want them to become part of how we operate rather than something separate from the work.

It sounds like you’re layering the values into the organisation at multiple levels. I particularly like Evolve With Focus because it reflects the stage SailGP is at now. Innovation matters, but it has to be directed where it creates the most value.

Exactly.

Another value is Deliver Quality and Consistency.

When we first developed our values, we could have chosen something like “deliver the best”. But if you’re always striving for absolute perfection, you can sometimes limit innovation and growth.

Instead, we focused on delivering quality. Now we’re adding consistency because the next stage of our growth requires greater predictability across our operations.

In the early years we were often entering new markets and creating things from scratch. Today we want cities and fans to know that SailGP is returning year after year and delivering the same exceptional experience.

We’re using our values to support that evolution. They’re not a set of rules people must follow. They’re how we operate.

We try to embed them into everything from onboarding to recognition programmes and people practices.

I think that’s absolutely fundamental. Values need to reflect how you operate – or aspire to operate – rather than words chosen because they sound good. Otherwise they’ll never truly become embedded.

Absolutely.

We may well put them on the walls at some point, but that’s not the goal. The goal is making them part of everyday language and behaviour.

I’m really enjoying this conversation and could talk about values-driven leadership and culture for hours.

As we start to bring things to a close, you obviously work in sport and enjoy sport outside work too. What’s your personal favourite sporting moment?

London 2012 had such a profound impact on my career and my life. I met my wife through London 2012 and it was just an extraordinary experience.

I felt incredibly humbled being a torchbearer. Sitting on the bus with the other torchbearers, I certainly didn’t feel worthy of being among some truly incredible people.

But the defining moment for me was Super Saturday.

I’d finished work for the day and was sitting in the Olympic Park watching the big screen. Even talking about it now gives me goosebumps.

It was the atmosphere. It was London coming alive behind some incredible athletes. Of course the sporting performances were extraordinary, but there was also a huge sense of pride in seeing London deliver such a remarkable event.

It felt like all the scepticism disappeared and the city showed what it was capable of. Combined with those incredible performances, it was something really special.

London 2012 was an incredible moment for London, and for the country as a whole. It was amazing to be part of it and to witness it.

Jon, thank you so much. I’ve really enjoyed talking to you. I’m fascinated by your values-driven approach to leadership and culture, and by the challenge of leading teams spread across the world while moving what feels like a travelling circus from city to city.

And the logistics still blow my mind. Somewhere there must be a very large spreadsheet keeping all of this running.

There are definitely a few spreadsheets involved, and they change quite a lot.

I can imagine.

If people would like to learn more about SailGP or connect with you, where should they go?

SailGP.com is the best place to start.

If you’re in the UK, come along to our Portsmouth event in July. It’s going to be absolutely epic with huge grandstands and, hopefully, plenty of sunshine on the South Coast.

You can also find me on LinkedIn. If anyone has questions, feel free to get in touch.

Brilliant. Thank you so much for joining me today, and good luck with the next event.

Great stuff. Thanks, Sherry.

Important links

• Jon Massie on LinkedIn.
• SailGP website.
• Grand Prix Portsmouth on 25 July event information.

About Jon Massie

Jon Massie, Chief People and Technical Officer at SailGP, where he leads the league’s global people strategy alongside its technical and engineering operations.

Jon has played a central role in scaling SailGP through rapid international growth, building high-performance teams and aligning culture with commercial success.

Previously, Jon held senior roles at the LTA and the Rugby Football Union. He was part of the recruitment leadership team delivering workforce operations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

He specialises in organisational transformation, performance culture and driving growth in complex sporting environments.

About your host, Sherry Bevan

Sherry Bevan believes that high-performing teams start with confident leadership.  Before running her own consultancy, she spent more than 30 years leading and working alongside technology teams in organisations such as McDermott Will & Emery, Credit Suisse and Arthur Andersen. 

Through her coaching and consultancy work, Sherry’s simple approach combines commercial understanding with honest conversations, strong facilitation and practical leadership support.

A former grassroots cyclist and still a runner, Sherry is fascinated by what makes teams perform well under pressure – which is why she draws so much inspiration from sport, leadership and the power of teamwork.

Because whether it’s a law firm, a technology team or an elite sports environment, great results rarely happen by accident. And it’s these ideas she explores with leaders and experts on Team Talk.

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