In 2023, Scott Moore was at a party when a friend told him Invictus Games Canada was looking for a Chief Executive Officer. That friend was Erin O’Toole, former leader of the federal Conservative Party. Scott told Erin he would pull together a list of potential candidates, but Erin wasn’t interested in a list. He wanted Scott to apply.
The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick service members and Veterans. Founded by Prince Harry, the first Invictus Games was held in 2014 in London. The seventh Games will be held here in Vancouver/Whistler from February 8 to 17, 2025.
“I was ready to retire,” Scott recalls. “But after hearing about the job, my wife Becky and I started watching Heart of Invictus, the Netflix documentary series about the Games. One episode in and we were both crying. I said to Becky, ‘I’m not applying for this job. I am going to get it.‘”
Scott was appointed CEO in February. “This work is about giving back” he says “My father didn’t have a military connection, however, he was a very philanthropic man who encouraged us to be charitable with both our money and our time.”
The Invictus Games is a shared journey of recovery, he says. “The competitors are involved because sport is giving them a purpose. The way I look at it is like this: the Olympic Games change lives. The Invictus Games save lives.”
Scott was born in Montreal in 1962. His family moved to Toronto in ’68. After high school, he attended Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson) to pursue a journalism career. “I wanted to be either a foreign correspondent or a hockey play-by-play guy In the end, I decided tobuild a career in sports.”
And what a remarkable career he built. It all began at TSN. When the network launched in 1984, Scott was among its first employees. Since that appointment, he’s worked 11 Olympics for four networks: CBC, CTV, NBC, and TSN.
“When I got the job as executive producer for CTV’s coverage of the Barcelona Games in 1992, I was only 28, which was young for an executive producer and I felt very fortunate to be doing what I was doing there.“
After the 2008 Beijing Games, where he worked as a sports and sales executive for the CBC, Scott left for Rogers to run the broadcasting assets, including Sportsnet. He was instrumental in Sportsnet landing the NHL broadcast rights in Canada. “We had a plan to be number one in sports broadcasting in Canada, and one of the parts of that plan was to secure the entire NHL rights for 12 years. It was an amazing deal.”
Scott unreservedly considers his work with the Invictus Games to be as important and rewarding as anything he’s done throughout his career. The stories from these Games are simply incredible, he says.
“At the Sydney Invictus Games in 2018, a young Royal Marine named Mark Ormrod was swimming for Britain. Mark is a triple amputee. He finished last in his race, and the remarkable thing was how the other swimmers, after finishing the race, swam back to Mark so the group could finishin together. In that culture, no person is left behind. The place went crazy.
What I have learned in my short time with the Invictus 2025 Games is how courageous these people are. They are coming to the Invictus Games because they bravely said, ‘I need help. I need something back in my life to get on track.’ Many of these soldiers have been discharged for health reasons. Now they get to participate in an Opening Ceremony and get greeted by thousands and thousands of people who want to say, ‘thank you.’”
“We are creating a legacy of gratitude for service to our country. We want competitors to come out onto centre stage at BC Place and feel enveloped in gratitude.”
The Opening Ceremony for the Invictus Games 2025 Vancouver Whistler Invictus Games is February. 8 at B.C. Place. Tickets are available now at ticketmaster.com. Stay tuned for a special speaker event with Scott Moore in November about the upcoming seventh Invictus Games 2025 in Vancouver and Whistler!
