Nicholas W. Craw

With a long and successful motor racing and business career to draw upon Nicholas Craw acted as President and CEO of SCCA for 17 years before joining the FIA in 2009 as President of the Senate.

After graduating from Princeton University Nick Craw joined Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere), an international health care organisation best known for its hospital ship, the SS Hope, which between 1960 and 1974 travelled the world helping to improve the health of nations.

He later became director of operations for HOPE, based in Washington DC, and it was there that his love of motor sport finally found an outlet, when he became acquainted with a Formula B racer who got him involved in the sport.

Craw began his motor racing career in Formula Atlantic and competed for Fred Opert Racing in the L & M Continental Championship. This took him all over the US and abroad to Canada, Mexico, Japan, Colombia and the UK. He also drove for Shierson Racing at Daytona 24 Hours and Sebring 12 Hours in a 2-litre Chevron.

In 1971, he turned professional and in 1973 managed to combine his track activities with an appointment as director of the Peace Corps, where he looked after 7,400 volunteers in 69 countries. In that same year he raced a BMW sports car in the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) series, taking a first win there on his way to the ’73 title. Two years later he repeated the achievement, again landing the BF Goodrich Radial Challenge crown.

In the mid-1990s he took to racing touring cars, and won the American Road Race of Champions and, on two occasions, the Twenty Four Hours of Nelson Ledges. After retiring he completed an MBA in Finance & General Management at Harvard and was planning to devote himself to investment banking and finance but instead, in 1983, he joined the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), the largest amateur motor sports club in the US.

He was elected President and Chief Executive Officer, a position he held for 17 years. At the time the SCCA had 55,000 members in 110 regions, and sanctioned 2,000 amateur and professional events each year.

During that time Craw was also a Vice President of the Automobile Competition Committee for the United States (ACCUS) and Chairman of its legislative arm, the National Motorsports Council.

In 2001 Craw left that role to become Executive Director of US Sailing. Four years later, however, he was asked to return to the ACCUS as its president. It led to him replacing Berdie Martin on the FIA World Motor Sports Council during the presidency of Max Mosley. He later became Deputy President for Sport and when Jean Todt ran for the role of FIA President, he became President of the Senate.

As well as his role as president of the Senate, Craw is also a member of the Statutes Review Commission and a member of the Fund Management Committee of the FIA Institute, which approves grants by the Motor Sport Safety Development Fund, with the aim of raising standards in motor sport around the world. Craw is also on the Board of Trustees of the FIA Foundation.

He also continues to work with ACCUS coordinating the FIA’s involvement in motor sport activities in the United States.