Scott DeRue Named Chief Executive Officer of Ironman Group

Scott DeRue has been named the new chief executive officer of The Ironman Group, joining the organization from Equinox, where he served as president.

At Equinox, DeRue oversaw a business that included 107 fitness clubs, a connected fitness platform, a large personal training and coaching practice and digital commerce and media properties. Before his appointment as president, DeRue served for three years as an independent director on the Equinox board.

Prior to joining Equinox, DeRue served for five years as dean of the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. Prior to becoming Dean, DeRue held various faculty and leadership positions at Michigan for over a decade. He began his career with the Monitor Group (now part of Deloitte) as an analyst for the company’s private equity business and subsequently served as a management consultant and leader on corporate strategy and organizational transformation projects.

“It’s really a dream come true opportunity,” DeRue said. “I’ve dedicated my entire career to creating life-changing experiences for people. Whether it’s education, health and fitness and now sport, the Ironman Group and the endurance sport community represents the greatest achievement of human expression that I can imagine. The experiences that we create through our races create opportunities for people to realize their potential in life in ways that are really positive and profound. For me there’s a deep sense of purpose and mission in the Ironman Group with the ideal that anything is possible.”

DeRue said the common thread between previous jobs and Ironman is “creating experiences that transform people. I have a deep appreciation for the power of those experiences, how you design those experiences, how you engage in those experiences. … with (Ironman), it’s about how to create experiences to show people that they can dream that anything is possible. To me there’s a lot of transferability around the focus of experience, focus on the athlete and the community.”

DeRue will join Ironman’s board of directors. He succeeds Andrew Messick, who announced his retirement in July 2023 after 12 years as chief executive officer. Messick will remain a member of the board of and will serve as an advisor to DeRue to ensure a smooth transition for the company.

“I am delighted to pass the baton to a leader of Scott’s experience and capabilities,” said Messick. “His high energy and commitment level will inspire and motivate The Ironman Group’s employees, partners, and the triathlon, trail running, road running and cycling communities. The company is in very capable hands and I look forward to supporting his leadership of this amazing organization.”

DeRue also is a member of the endurance community, having completed the 250km Gobi March ultramarathon, reached the summits of Everest, Denali, Elbrus, Vinson, and Aconcagua and led teams to Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest point in Africa.

“One thing that I’ll bring is an orientation of leadership about building winning teams and empowering them to do great work,” DeRue said, adding “I think there’s an opportunity to have even more focus, even more innovation, in the athlete experience. I’m going to bring a deep commitment for the athlete experience and the athlete community and that’s about elevating their experience on race day, engaging the athlete community throughout their journey and empowering the community to have a voice to create experiences that will inspire them and want to engage with.”

Ironman’s portfolio includes hundreds of events across more than 50 countries in triathlon, running, trail running, road cycling and mountain biking and a suite of digital training platforms and programs for athletes.

“The endurance community is a really passionate, really engaged community and there’s a lot of ideas out there and a lot of perspectives,” DeRue said. “These are very local communities in some case. The first priority in the early days is to build relationships with your team and athlete community. Second on the heels of that would be spending a lot of time early on listening and learning from our community. That’s what is going to open up doors of opportunity and plant seeds of innovation. That’s what I’ve done when I entered organization is … using that collective wisdom to shape your vision and shape your priority. I’m eager to engage with the Ironman community. They all have inspiration, they all have ideas and I’m looking forward to learning from all of them.”