CBI members visit London's Olympic Park
With weeks to go until the park goes into lockdown before being graced by the world's finest sportspeople, CBI members were given a sneak preview
Leaders at member firms joined the CBI on a visit to the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, this month - just a few weeks before the park goes into lockdown for final preparations for the Games.
The visit took in key venues - including the stadium, the aquatics centre and the velodrome - where top athletes from around the world will compete in the summer.
Richard Fuller, the Fuller's executive director, paid tribute to the park during the visit - and said that the legacy would benefit London and firms such as Fuller's.
"It's going to put London firmly on the world map - so if you are connected with London, as we are, the benefits of the Olympics will be felt around the world and we will do well as a result of it," he said.
Breege Burke, the Working Links chief executive, also went to the Olympic Park with the CBI.
She said: "It's amazing, it's so impressive in terms of what has been achieved. It's fantastic for London, it's fantastic for the UK and it's fantastic for sport."
And Cornelius Medvei, partner at Eversheds, paid tribute to the look of the site, saying: "It's an amazing site, it has been developed in an extraordinarily short space of time, you get a real sense of the finished site - the park, the stadia. It's magnificent."
Assistant CBI London regional director Bryan Cress said the change in the Stratford site was impressive.
"It is hard to believe that a few short years ago, this was a semi-derelict dumping-ground, a polluted eye-sore," he said. "On the tour, we heard about how the transformation had been done, through the ingenuity and expertise of the builders, designers and planners and their pain-staking determination to ensure the site will deliver both a great place for sport and a long-lasting legacy of new opportunities for business and residents."
"Up close, the park looks amazing – and it’s not just the sporting venues but the athletes' village, which will be transformed into 2,800 new homes complete with new education and health facilities, and the huge area of urban parkland cross-crossed with cleaned-up waterways.
“It’s easy to forget what a considerable achievement building the Olympics has been – and it’s a tribute to every single one of the many, mostly British, companies which have made the transformation possible.”