Utah Business proudly presents this year’s cohort of our Leaders of the Year award. These 12 honorees represent accomplishments of Utah’s business community in 2024 and were selected by the Utah Business editorial team.
Fraser Bullock
President & CEO | Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games
The circumstances that originally made Fraser Bullock famous in Utah could very well have made him infamous. After all, running a successful Olympic Games is difficult under any circumstances — to say nothing of doing the job while under the intense scrutiny that accompanies picking up the financial and operational pieces of an organization nearly wrecked by scandal.
“The Olympics is the most complicated thing in the world,” Bullock says. “Whereas most organizations will have six or seven functions, the Games have about 48, and some of them are immensely complicated. It’s almost incomprehensible.”
Fortunately for Bullock and all involved, Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Games would go on to be named one of the most successful in history. Building on that success, Bullock recently led the similarly successful effort to bring the Olympics back to Utah in 2034.
Looking back, it’s apparent that Bullock had been on the path leading to his 1999 appointment as COO and CFO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) from early on.
“I was very academically oriented and attended a large high school. My senior year, I won the school math competition,” Bullock says. “Having that quantitative background helps me to quickly and accurately analyze the financial state of an organization.”
Bullock went to Brigham Young University intending to study math but soon pivoted to economics, deciding that the degree could both satisfy his love of numbers and offer better career prospects. While pursuing an MBA, “Big Three” consulting firm Bain & Company recruited him, making Bullock the first of what has gone on to be a great number of BYU MBAs starting their careers there.
“As a consultant, I learned to come into an organization and assess its operational strengths and weaknesses, then come up with plans to help that part of an organization succeed,” Bullock says.
Vitally, it was at Bain that Bullock met then-SLOC CEO Mitt Romney. Eventually, the pair moved to Bain Capital, where Bullock says he learned even more about how to assess an entity’s prospects when the consequences of getting it wrong are especially high.
“After Bain, I worked in various operational roles, including at a tech company. Technology is a big part of the Olympics, so I needed that knowledge,” Bullock says. “Then, I was CFO at another company, and because the financial part of the Olympics is such a huge issue — you’ve got to break even — having a deep understanding of not just financial analysis but also financial management was very important. It was a succession of experiences that prepared me to manage the games.”
Today, as co-founder and partner at Sorenson Capital, Bullock is an investor with a strong affinity for Utah tech firms. Surprisingly, after everything he’s seen and done, Bullock says the most important characteristic he’s acquired has nothing to do with numbers.
“People talk about the value of networks, but in my mind, the real value is in trusting relationships and my superpower is the ability to form them,” he says. “It’s very beneficial as an investor. When there’s something going on in a company, the management team knows they can come to me for advice, and I’ll be there for them to help them see the opportunities, reach their goals and navigate their challenges.”