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Purpose and benefits

A car accident as a child prevented Mark McCormack from playing contact sports. He went on, however, to become one of the most powerful figures in sport, carving out a niche in the bruising world of sports star management—an industry he virtually invented. Through golf he met Arnold Palmer in the 1950s, an encounter that led him to set up National Sports Management Inc. and then, in the 1960s, the International Management Group (IMG). Starting with a small but select group of golfers that included Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player, McCormack built an international agency that has now expanded beyond the world of sports to include clients as varied as Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, and the Nobel Foundation (the organisation that awards the Nobel Prizes). With offices in 90 countries, the company covers television programming, event organising, and website management.