Entrepreneurs: Benchmark’s Nick Keller on using sport’s power to heal society (Evening Standard)

Entrepreneurs: Benchmark’s Nick Keller on using sport’s power to heal society
By Alex Lawson

If you needed a moment to sum up Nick Keller, it would probably have been the eve of the ­Olympics in 2012. The entrepreneur, who has made a career from philanthropic sports ventures, was carrying the Olympic torch. “By sheer coincidence I was running past the flat I’d lived in for 10 years in Chalk Farm. I’d left the family home that April and having my kids on the route there was such a moment. You have security around you saying, ‘You do not stop, you do not stop,’ but I hugged the boys, got grabbed and moved on.”

Rugby-mad Keller actually got ready for that run with Sir Clive Woodward in a school changing-room, and the England World Cup-winning coach is one of the many sports stars who nestle in his contact book. For example, the 2012 Games also saw Keller organise an event in which Muhammad Ali and David Beckham presented an award to a young Afghan refugee.

Today Keller runs Benchmark, a holding company devised to create and invest in what he describes as ­“purpose-driven businesses”. The idea is to use sport to improve society (think what American football player Colin Kaepernick and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling have done for the fight against racism either side of the Pond).

Keller’s group aims to tackle issues such as racism, inequality and knife crime through a series of ventures. There’s Beyond Sport, a division that promotes sport for change through efforts such as lobbying and its eponymous awards; a ­consultancy, thinkBeyond; a talent agency for sportspeople; a ­burgeoning esports division; and the Square Mile relay.

The latter will be familiar to City suits. The 12-year-old event sees colleagues compete in teams and is now in 13 financial districts globally. The group is run as a limited company, with a charity foundation alongside it. Benchmark has run events for corporates such as L&G, and increasingly works in the US teaming up with its major sports leagues on outreach programmes.

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