By Alan Baldwin
MONTREAL, June 7 (Reuters) - Former Diageo boss Paul Walsh has not
joined the Formula One Group as a non-executive director despite the
appointment being announced last year, Bernie Ecclestone said on Sunday.
"He wasn't offered a position. It was in discussion
but...that's it," Ecclestone, the 84-year-old Briton who runs the
commercial side of the sport for controlling shareholder CVC, told
Reuters at the Canadian Grand Prix."I don't know whether he was going to get offered a position or not but at the time he couldn't say 'yes, I'm going to be whatever'."
Walsh was touted in the media last year as a potential future chairman of Formula One -- whose current incumbent Peter Brabeck-Letmathe is unwell -- with others speculating he could ultimately take over from Ecclestone.
Private equity group CVC had announced in a statement on December 18
that Walsh would become a non-executive director effective from January
1.
Former
Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo was another appointment while
Ecclestone was reappointed to the board after a period off it during a
bribery trial in Germany that was resolved with a $100 million payment.
Walsh was chief executive of drinks company Diageo from 2000 to 2013 and is chairman of Compass Group.
Comments in Management Today last December, attributed to a
source close to Walsh, indicated he "would want to rein in (Ecclestone)
to some extent from a good governance point of view" if appointed.
Ecclestone responded then by telling reporters: "He would
be unique if he could do that. First he's got to be appointed, hasn't
he?" (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Douglas Beattie)
