Carlos Neuhaus on Leading Lima 2019 and Creating a Lasting Legacy Optimizing resources and organizing people made the Pan Am Games a success Carlos Neuhaus Tudela, ’74, is enjoying a victory lap of sorts following the success of Lima 2019. As President of the Organizing Committee of the Pan American and Parapan American Games, Neuhaus led the massive organization, which had a total budget estimated at $1.2 billion (US), 11,315 volunteers, 1,000 hours of competitions and ceremonies broadcast, and a total of 6,508 athletes. Peru was named as host of the Pan American and Parapan American Games, the fourth largest sporting event in the world, at a ceremony in Toronto in 2013. It was the first time for the country of 32 million people to host the Games. When Neuhaus took the reins as President of the Organizing Committee in 2016, very little had been done to plan the nearly 800 events in 56 sports. Neuhaus immediately began making up for lost time. Previously extravagant plans were scaled back and Lima 2019 began finding ways to save time and money by optimizing the funding and procurement related to the Games’ construction projects.
LEGACY: NEW MODEL OF PROCUREMENT, INNOVATION, TRANSPARENCY Since the Games wrapped up on Sept. 1, Neuhaus has received accolades for the smooth running of the events and for creating a management and organization model that allowed them to come in under its original budget. In fact, there is discussion at a national level about Lima 2019 leaving a legacy that will change how the public sector incorporates private project management tools in the future. Neuhaus met with the country’s new Minister of Economy and Finance to share some details about how he and his team
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Thunderbird Magazine Spring 2020
The president of Panam Sports, Chilean Neven Ilic (L) and the president of the organizing committee of the Lima 2019 PanAmerican Games, Peruvian Carlos Neuhaus, onstage during the opening ceremony of the Games at the National Stadium in Lima, on July 26, 2019. - The Pan-American Games ran until August 11. (Photo by Cris BOURONCLE / AFP via Getty Images)
overcame the legal, financial, and technical challenges related to the timely execution of the major infrastructure projects – stadiums, arenas, housing facilities – required for the Pan American Games. The motto for Lima 2019 was ‘Let’s All Play’ or ‘Jugamos Todos.’ Neuhaus’s personal mottos were closer to ‘Let’s All Work Together’ and ‘Never Give Up.’ The success of the Lima 2019 Games was based in large part on Neuhaus’ application of various mechanisms that allowed the rapid execution of the budget; among them, a key government-to-government (G2G) agreement with the United Kingdom. In April 2017, the UK and Peru signed an innovative G2G agreement making the UK their key partner in supporting the delivery of the Lima 2019 Pan American and Parapan American Games. Through this agreement Peru received UK assistance and knowledge-transfer to aid their preparations and delivery of the games. Thanks to the G2G agreement, the two countries shared best practices across a wide range of specializations, including planning, management, contracting, and execution of infrastructure works, which combined to allow Peru to work under international laws, ultimately facilitating the bidding processes for projects. As part of the agreement, a team of UK experts with experience running more than 100 major sporting events such as the 2012 Olympics was able to work closely with the Lima 2019 organizing committee, helping it deliver the infrastructure and organization of the games on-time and on-budget. Most of the funds were dedicated to the construction of permanent sports infrastructure, like the first Olympic size
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