Pierre-Yves Gerbeau (born 16 October 1965, [1] often shortened to P.Y. Gerbeau) [2] is a French businessman, former ice hockey player, and the current president of the French Ice Hockey Federation. [3] [4]
Gerbeau was born into an affluent Parisian family, where his parents ran an office supply company. In addition to their house in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, they also had a weekend residence in the Forest of Fontainebleau. [2]
Gerbeau started out in 1984 as a professional ice hockey player, playing in several championships and becoming a member of the French national team, [5] before a severe ankle injury curtailed his sports career in 1989. [2] [6] While working in the United Kingdom, Gerbeau kept in touch with the game by playing inline hockey for the South London Snipers in Division 1 of the BIPHA South League. [7]
On an edition of the BBC's Daily Politics show, Gerbeau revealed that he had been suspended from the French Olympic Organisation because he supported London's successful bid for the 2012 Olympic Games instead of the Paris bid. [8]
On 1 October 2021, Gerbeau was appointed president of the French Ice Hockey Federation, replacing Luc Tardif after the latter became president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. [3] He was reelected in June 2022. [4]
He then turned to business, first with TPS Conseil, then in 1991 joined Euro Disney, rising rapidly to become Vice-President of Park Operations and Attractions in 1997. His responsibilities included ticketing, the safety and maintenance of attractions, and sorting out the queues. [6] He was credited with turning the attraction around after a difficult start. [9] He later left Disney to complete a Master of Business Administration degree at Sciences Po. [10] [11]
On 5 February 2000, Gerbeau was appointed chief executive of the New Millennium Experience Company, the operator of the Millennium Dome in London. His appointment followed the resignation of Jennifer Page after an opening night fiasco and poor attendances in January 2000.[ clarification needed ] He was brought in to turn around the fortunes of an attraction struggling in the face of major financial problems [12] and negative publicity. [13] Whilst in charge, he became known for his enthusiastic and confident personality, [14] and was nicknamed "the Gerbil" by the British press. [2]
Following the closure of the millennium exhibition at the end of 2000, Gerbeau became Chief executive of X-Leisure, operator of the Xscape centres and other leisure facilities. [11] [15]
On 27 June 2019, Gerbeau was appointed chief executive officer of London Resort Company Holdings (LRCH), the owner of the proposed London Resort. [16] He resigned in December 2022, after 3 years serving as its CEO. The LRCH went into administration in March 2023.
He is married to Kate Gerbeau (née Sanderson), a British television presenter, and has a daughter (Clémence) [17] from another relationship. [2] He also has a daughter with Kate.[ citation needed ]
Appearing on the BBC's Question Time on 28 May 2009, Gerbeau declared that he would live in Britain for the rest of his life, jokingly describing France as "a communist country."[ citation needed ]
The Millennium Dome was the original name of the large dome-shaped building on the Greenwich Peninsula in South East London, England, which housed a major exhibition celebrating the beginning of the third millennium. As of 2022, it is the ninth largest building in the world by usable volume. The exhibition was open to the public from 1 January to 31 December 2000. The project and exhibition were highly contentious and attracted barely half of the 12 million customers its sponsors forecasted, and so were deemed a failure by the press. All the original exhibition elements were sold or dismantled.
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Kate Gerbeau is an English television presenter and news reader, currently on British Forces News.
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The O2 Arena, commonly known as The O2, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of The O2 entertainment district on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the third-highest seating capacity of any indoor venue in the United Kingdom, behind the Co-op Live and Manchester Arena, and in 2008 was the world's busiest music arena. As of 2022, it is the ninth-largest building in the world by volume with a diameter of 365 metres and a height of 52 metres.
The O2 is a large entertainment district on the Greenwich peninsula in South East London, England, including an indoor arena, a music club, a Cineworld cinema, an exhibition space, piazzas, bars, restaurants, and a guided tour to the top of the O2. It was built largely within the former Millennium Dome, a large dome-shaped canopy built to house an exhibition celebrating the turn of the third millennium; consequently The Dome remains a name in common usage for the venue. It is sometimes referred to as The O2 Arena, but that name properly refers to the indoor arena within The O2. Naming rights to the district were purchased by the mobile telephone provider O2 from its developers, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), during the development of the district. AEG owns the long-term lease on the O2 Arena and surrounding leisure space.
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Sport in Cardiff is dictated by, amongst other things, its position as the capital city of Wales, meaning that national home sporting fixtures are nearly always played in the city. All of Wales' multi-sports agencies and many of the country's sports governing bodies have their headquarters in Cardiff and the city's many top-quality venues have attracted world-famous sport events, sometimes unrelated to Cardiff or to Wales.
Jennifer Anne "Jennie" Page, was chief executive of the London Millennium Dome project from 1 March 1995 until she resigned after a flawed opening night and poor early attendance at the start of 2000.
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For the first ten years, the federation had its offices in Issy-les-Moulineaux, Hauts-de-Seine. In 2016, it moved to a new national training center in Cergy, Val-d'Oise. It manages both the amateur and professional games in France, as well as the national teams on junior and senior levels. France is a founding member of the IIHF.
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Luc Tardif is a Canadian-born French ice hockey executive, and former professional ice hockey player. A native of Trois-Rivières, he played junior ice hockey in Quebec, then was an all-star player for the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. During his professional career, he became a naturalized citizen of France, won two Nationale A League titles, and won the Charles Ramsay Trophy four times with Chamonix HC as the league's top scorer. Later in his career, he was a player-coach for the Dragons de Rouen, then served as the team's vice-president and oversaw the youth hockey program.