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60-second interview: Simon Bazalgette, Chief Executive, The Jockey Club, UK
Simon Bazalgette (born 28 March 1962) is chief executive of The Jockey Club, which runs 15 UK racecourses including Cheltenham, Aintree, Epsom and Newmarket, and other assets such as The National Stud. Governed by Royal Charter, with a turnover of £150.3m in 2012, The Jockey Club is the largest commercial group in British horse racing. He is also chairman of Jockey Club Racecourses and The Grubb Institute.
Bazalgette is often described in the media as the 'most powerful man' in British horse racing. He features in The Times Power 100 of the most influential people in sport.
He is the great great grandson of Sir Joseph Bazalgette, who designed London's sewer system, and the cousin of Big Brother creator, Sir Peter Bazalgette.
Between 2004 and 2008, Bazalgette ran Racing UK, the media rights management company and satellite TV channel, as its founding executive chairman. From 1993 and 2003, he was one of the founding directors of digital broadcast network, Music Choice Europe, becoming chief executive in 1999. Under his leadership, Music Choice Europe reached more than 14 million subscribers across Europe and floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2000. Prior to that Bazalgette worked at KPMG for 10 years as both a chartered accountant and management consultant specialising in media and entertainment businesses.
Bazalgette was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. He attended Thames Valley Grammar School in Twickenham and Richmond upon Thames College before reading mathematics at Warwick University, where he graduated in 1983. He is a supporter of Brentford FC.