“Historically, Chefs de Mission have taken on a variety of different levels of responsibility. Equine Canada (EC) staff are there to help. In 2002, EC hired a WEG coordinator for 6 months to assist the Chef de Mission. Each Chef d’Equipe is responsible for his or her own team – accreditation, logistics, transportation etc. and I’m the coordinator. But, I’ve tried to set it up that I’m an advisor to the Chefs. I act as the ‘master planner’ and the Chefs d’Equipe implement the plans. To minimize the administrative work load, I set up a preferred vendor program. By doing this, all of the teams are able to save money on the purchase of goods and services and I’ve got the vendors doing a lot of the administrative work that we might otherwise have had to hire someone to handle or burden EC staff with.

“I’m strong on logistics and organization, which is the (main) job of the Chef de Mission. I’ve also had the opportunity to travel extensively, throughout my life, so some of the challenges of traveling to a foreign country are easier for me to understand and deal with. I have a strong financial background which helps in coordinating some of the control aspects, budgets and challenges and concerns that the EC accounting staff have to deal with in order to do their jobs.”

MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• “Being married to Alison for 28 years, and raising two children, Denielle and Adam.”

• “I’ve always done things that I like—jobs I’ve enjoyed. That’s a hard thing to do. Some think I’m a workaholic. I’m not. What’s your definition of work? I’d rather play on my computer for three hours, inventing a new program, than read a book. I’m not working, I’m doing something enjoyable. I might eventually get paid for it so it’s called ‘work’, but…”

DID YOU KNOW?

• Gallagher was the Canadian Team Leader—Equestrian, for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.

• He has been the Regional Course Advisor for the Maritimes for Eventing for ten years.

• At 16, he was the youngest member of the International Pony Club Rally team representing Canada in England.

• At 18 he won the Quebec Eventing Championships and won the award for the best Junior Event Rider in Canada.

• He’s a Level II Technical Delegate and Eventing Jumper Judge.

• “I got into Eventing because where I lived we were next door to the Caledon and Eglington Hunt Club, so I started hunting. That leads automatically into Eventing. Once you’ve galloped across the fields following the hounds, you’re hooked on riding cross country jumps.”

PROFILE