Here’s the bit about recruitment: (my bold)
Invictus Games needs experienced comms personMeanwhile, according to a recent LinkedIn ad, the Games are still in need of a “Head of Marketing & Communications” expert.
My source, who was contacted independently about the job, said: “If they need a marketing and communications expert to sort them out with only a year to go… that’s not looking good. Anyone able to make a difference will need six months to a year to leave their job. Anyone available right now… I’d say would not have the experience.”
My source, who commands over $150,000 a year (per client) as a consultant, noted the advertised salary was “interesting” as it is only for £36,000-60,000 for what is basically an 18-month role. “The job was until 2027, so an 18-month role. In London? Why not on the ground in Birmingham?”
No one good will take this on,” my source added. While my source was contacted by an agency, the source said, “When the recruitment team spoke to me, they would not tell me it was Invictus until I told them I needed to know, as the reputation of the organization was important to me.”
They said it had a connection to a royal couple who got involved with the staff, and that’s all they would say. So, I said if it’s Prince Harry or Meghan Markle, ‘it’s a no’ — and they said thank you and goodbye.”
“They announced the search for a new ‘Head of Communications and Marketing’ to report to the Chief Growth Officer Helen D’Oyley, indicating a restructuring of the senior marketing leadership team as of December 2024. As an organization, the staff turnover is not healthy.”
Another issue for my source was: “Events like this (I organized many) take a year or more to deliver.”
A former city council member for Birmingham also said the Games are being funded by the Labour government via the Office for Veterans’ Affairs.
Meanwhile, an Instagram account created for the Birmingham Games has little more than 1,800 followers to date.
There seems to be very little enthusiasm,” my source said, adding that if they had their way, they would stipulate “it would have to be just Harry coming over — no Meghan (Markle) and I’d stipulate that ticket sales must reach 80% sold by end of 2026. Or it’s cancelled or scaled down.”
As Tom Bower noted in his recently released book, “Betrayal,” two ousted Canadian Invictus executives “had resented the pushy Sussexes” and regarded Meghan “as a distraction from the injured veterans,” with one protesting: “She’s bling, not rehabilitation.” Bower also wrote that Dominic Reid, then head of the Invictus Foundation, was concerned about the event being seen as “the Harry and Meghan show,” with the couple’s prominence overshadowing the actual competitors.
There’s a bit more about security issues but nothing we don’t know.