Andrew Liveris, holding aloft a silver Olympic torch and dressed in a tightly-fitting white sports outfit, is jogging slowly down an overcast Paris street.
The Australian 70-year-old is excited. Pumping his fist. Waving. It's the 2024 Olympic Games.
"Vive la France!" he yells to bystanders separated by a phalanx of sunglass-wearing guards. Some bystanders cheer back. Some are nonchalant.
He's been in the spotlight for decades, first as a US chemical giant's chief executive, overseeing multibillion dollar mergers and seeing off a company expenses scandal involving Super Bowl tickets.
Now he's president of the committee running one of Australian sport's biggest money-pots: the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The businessman will have to navigate problems including ensuring the Games don't slug taxpayers, or wrangling Olympic-ambitious sports associations that try gifting an $82,000 cognac to his committee.
He also will have to handle potential conflicts of interest, with the ABC today revealing his majority stake in an emerging professional sports group even as industry associations eye Olympics glory. And his philosophies supporting minorities and the environment may face "anti-woke" turbulence from conservative Australia.
That doesn't matter in this Paris moment. Mr Liveris finishes his jog, transfers the flame to his relay buddy's torch, and they pose triumphantly for photographers, arms aloft.
