Sir Ben Ainslie is the founder and CEO of the Athena Sports Group, the high-performance sports business that includes the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team, the British America's Cup Team - Athena Racing - and the Athena Pathway development programme. Alongside his management role, Ben is also a competitive racer and most recently helmed Britain’s race boat in the 37th America’s Cup. Ben’s work has brought engineering innovations to the world, inspired a generation of young people to take up STEM careers and secured high levels of investment for his sport.
Known globally as the world’s most successful Olympic sailor (1996-2012, 4x Gold & 1x Silver) and America’s Cup winner (2013), Ben has also established himself as a leading force in maritime innovation and technology – both through owning and leading high-performance sports teams and through the founding of BAR Technologies.
SAILGP
Ben’s Athena Sports Group owns 60% of the Emirates Great Britain Sail Grand Prix Team, one of 12 team franchises in the Global Sailing League ‘SailGP’. Joining initially in 2021 as a driver for the British Team, in 2021 Ben became the first person to purchase a franchise from SailGP, bringing in two long-term partners to make up the ownership structure.
THE AMERICA’S CUP
Ben is CEO of the British America’s Cup Team, Athena Racing, the challenging entity representing Royal Yacht Squadron Ltd, the Challenger of Record for the 38th America’s Cup.
Ben formed the current British America’s Cup team in 2013, initially under the name of Ben Ainslie Racing (Land Rover BAR) for the 35th America’s Cup in Bermuda. It went on to compete in the 36th America’s Cup as INEOS Team UK and as INEOS Britannia for the 37th America’s Cup.
As the skipper and CEO of INEOS Britannia, Ben led the team to win the Louis Vuitton Cup in October 2024, in Barcelona. The team was defeated by Emirates Team New Zealand in the final of the 37th America’s Cup Match, with a scoreline of 7-2. This was the best result of a British America’s Cup team in 90 years.
Athena Pathway Programme
Ben has always been extremely conscious that the fields of sport and business both wield significant power, and this should be used to make positive change. Early on, he realised that he wanted to be more than just an athlete or the leader of a sports team – he wanted to also use his platform to inspire progress.
Athena Pathway was launched in August 2022 by Ben and Hannah Mills OBE, one of the world’s most successful female Olympic sailors, with the aim of fast-tracking development in high-performance sailing and bringing diversity into the sport and the UK marine industry more broadly. The plan to build a long term, equitable pathway in high performance sailing kicked off in Barcelona 2024, with Athena Pathway coming second in the first ever PUIG Women’s America’s Cup and third in the UniCredit Youth America’s Cup. The development programme continues both on and off the water with those involved gaining experience both on and off the water across the Athena Sports Group.
ains/ie + ains/ie
As a high-performing athlete for over 20 years, maintaining his wellness and physical fitness at a high level has been essential. This dedication has also led to a passion for innovation in human performance.
Ben and Georgie Ainslie recognised that in elite sports, protection against illness isn’t just a marginal gain—it's a necessity. Boost an athlete’s immunity, increase energy, maximize sleep and recovery, and there’s no limit to what can be achieved. Thus, ainslie+ainslie was born!
NIGHT POWDER is their first performance supplement, designed for athletes but made for everyone. It gives the Athena Sports Group teams the rest and recovery they need, when they need it most, but it can also do a job for others looking for better daily performance, at work, at home and in life.
One of the challenges of establishing maritime technology centres of excellence is having enough young people engaged in STEM subjects today, to become the scientists and engineers of tomorrow. Ben wanted to encourage more young people into these careers, and so in 2014 created the 1851 Trust, a specialist sport-inspired STEM education charity with Royal Patronage from Her Royal Highness, the Princess of Wales.
STEM Crew
The Trust originally set up an education centre at its America’s Cup Team Base in Portsmouth and now offers an online education platform, STEM Crew, which has free access for schools around the world, using the real-life context of sport to inspire young people to take up STEM careers.
Talking to students and teachers as part of the STEM Project, The 1851 Trust realised both groups wanted to also understand more about climate change and what action they could take, and so in 2022 The Trustees decided to extend the 1851 Trust to also incorporate climate education, through an online platform called Protect Our Future.
The science-based education resources created by Protect Our Future are free to use and available globally online, enabling schools to become climate hubs. The resources equip young people and educators with the skills and knowledge to understand climate change and take positive action. Protect Our Future works with the Emirates Great Britain SailGP Team to invite local schoolchildren to SailGP events around the world for climate education lessons, and so far 2,200 students have engaged in the lessons in Season 3 and 4. The collaboration helped Emirates GBR win SailGP's Season 4 Impact League , which is sport's first ever podium for the planet that rewards teams for its sustainability projects.
Ben is also Founding trustee of the Andrew Simpson Foundation (ASF) and was a life-long friend of Andrew “Bart” Simpson, the British Olympic and Americas Cup Sailor.
The Andrew Simpson Foundation was launched by Ben, Iain Percy OBE and Andrew Simpson’s widow Leah after her husband Bart died during a America's Cup training accident in May 2013.
The ASF provide thousands of young people the opportunity to enjoy and benefit from the life changing challenges of sailing, transforming their lives. Sailing at any of the Andrew Simpson not-for-profit centres not only gives every young person an incredible experience on the water, but all of the profits are put back into the charity.
From the start of his career, Ben has also been keenly aware of the unrealised opportunity of racing innovation. He has worked consistently towards a vision of creating a ‘maritime valley’ in the UK, across the south coast. It’s an ambitious and complex challenge that will take time and persistence to realise in full. Tangible proof of delivery include the landmark Portsmouth Base on the Camber docks that is now home to SubSea Craft, as well as the creation of BAR Technologies.
BAR Technologies was set up in 2016 to bring the innovation and design breakthroughs of elite racing to the world. It works at the forefront of innovative engineering solutions, providing bespoke services and sector intelligence across naval architecture, design optimisation, performance simulation and refinement, along with mechanical, composite and detail design.
Another theme in Ben’s career has been his steady commitment to tackling climate change. BAR Technologies’ latest project, WindWings, is inspired by the sport of sailing and enables large vessels to make use of emission-free wind power, adding large sails, or wings, to the ships. By removing the reliance on fuel, WindWings has the potential to reduce a cargo ship’s lifetime CO2 emissions by 30%. Adding four wings to a vessel could save six tonnes of fuel and 20 tonnes of CO2 a day.
