Does A Celebrity Endorsement Mean Anything?

Romney often is described as a turnaround artist. No better example of that is how he turned a failure into a success with the 2002 Winter Olympics.
At the time, the Salt Lake Olympics Organizing Committee (SLOC) had paid more than $1 million in bribes to members of the International Olympic Committee to bring the games to Utah. Even before the scandal erupted, the games had a projected shortfall of $397 million. Given the taint, few wanted to sign up as sponsors or support the event.

He asked Fraser Bullock, one of the seven original partners of Romney’s Bain Capital, to become his chief operating officer.

“It was in the midst of a scandal, and you only know how dark it was there if you were there,” Bullock says. “It was very dark, because the Justice Department was investigating the organizing committee. Prospective sponsors, nobody would answer the phone. We had a budget deficit, the morale was very low. We were the target of every newspaper and news station.”
Romney had a modest corner office on the 13th floor of SLOC headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City
Romney brought to the table “his leadership that was comprised of optimism and undaunted confidence that we would get the job done,” Bullock says.

Romney “can see into a situation very quickly,” Bullock says. “He’s very facile with numbers. He’s got that raw intellect which lays a great foundation. And then he’s combined that with a very significant layering upon layer of education and business experience that has given him now the base from which he can make pretty sound judgments pretty quickly.”

Romney traveled all over the world to gather support for the Olympics. Meanwhile, he cut back on expenses.

“He does not tolerate one iota of waste.”

The board members would hold lavish lunches for themselves. Romney said, “Well, our lunches are now going to be pizza, and it’s going to be a dollar a slice,” according to Bullock. “It saved us tens of thousands of dollars, and it was very symbolic, and people got the message to watch every penny.”

Romney cut back on frills for the games. He reduced the number of flags to be flown throughout the city and persuaded politicians to come up with funds to pay for some of the decorations.

Romney’s enthusiasm was infectious, driving the sales people to set an all-time record for Olympic sponsorships. Just as significant when it comes to a presidential run, Romney tamed the press.

. “He dug right into the security issues.”

“The question on my mind was, how do I keep a bomb from going off?” Romney tells me. “I’m not going to worry so much about cleaning up after the bomb. I need to make sure it does not go off.


In the end, ticket sales surpassed those of any previous Winter Olympics. An estimated 2.1 billion people around the world watched the games over 17 days, and the United States won 34 medals.

Having faced a budget deficit of $379 million when he took over, Romney ended up with a surplus of $56 million. The money went to fund future Olympics.

When he took the job, Romney said he would accept the offered salary of $250,000 a year only if the Olympics made a profit. When it did, he turned his salary over to charity. In addition, he contributed $1 million to the games.

“My goal is to make Utah proud, make America proud,” Romney said in accepting the Olympics position. “Sure the managers have messed up big time, but the athletes haven’t, and our job is to