Meet The Team: Euan Cattermole

Third generation racing cyclist, track coach and runner Euan, has been deeply involved in sport all his life. At work he enjoys creating campaign strategy and improving our office processes which means we now ask him all our Excel questions. His talent for cooking means his lunches are the envy of all the office.

How did you end up here? 

I’m a third generation racing cyclist. My Grandad raced, my dad raced, my brother raced, so naturally, I did too. Track racing was my big passion and I really enjoyed racing to a decent standard at local and regional level into my early 20s. I became a freelance cycling coach and started working full time from the age of 16, picking up work where I could with British Cycling, local schools and councils. My love of track cycling naturally led me to Herne Hill Velodrome, where I worked for 10 years, gradually working my way up to assistant manager. Over those years I had the pleasure of sharing the sport I loved with thousands of people and coached every age, ability level and cycling discipline you could imagine.

Why Fusion Media? 

Whilst I loved my job as a cycling coach and knew the beneficial experiences and learnings it afforded me, I could also see the potential limitations. Fusion represented an opportunity to broaden my horizons and grow within a more conventional and well known industry and in turn, grow my career prospects. When I started the style of work was completely different to what I had known before and the learning curve was steep. Fortunately coming from the world of cycling gave me enough experience that I could still add some value to the team whilst learning this new trade. The ability to grow and progress has been fantastic over the past 2.5 years. It truly is a great group of people which I think is such a rarity

What aspects of your role at Fusion excite you the most?

It’s a really nice feeling to work together as a team towards a common goal, there’s something very powerful about it.  I particularly enjoy planning, strategizing and researching and can happily sit working away for something for hours on my own. I’m also big on process, so developing new processes for us to grow stronger and more efficient as an agency is something I really enjoy adding to the mix. Also getting the inside scoop on new products and innovations coming within the industry is really cool too

Any trends in cycling you think will dominate in the coming year? What should we be watching out for?

Now that road bikes are pretty much all disc brakes, 12-speed and have electronic shifting, I think there will be a slowing in the development of these road bike ‘standards’ and a top end road bike bought today won't be too different to one released in 10 years time. I hope so!

On the racing side I expect the aggressive flag-to-flag style racing to continue which I am totally here for.

For the active travel side of things it’s likely to be an interesting year with the potential General Election, so hopefully a reprioritising of cycling and walking

What’s the best piece of professional advice you’ve ever received?

Look for solutions rather than problems. I feel like it’s just a far more positive and practical way to view things

How do you like to unwind outside of work? 

There’s less cycling these days, but still plenty of activity with a few trips to the gym each week, plus a run and a swim. I do all these activities with friends to tick those social and exercise boxes.

I also love cooking and probably the most interesting fact about me is that I rarely cook the same meal twice. I love collecting and reading cookbooks. Getting a cookbook on a specific cultural cuisine and really getting stuck in with it is a great way to learn about the world.

Recently I’ve largely replaced nights out with board game nights, which can sometimes run deep into the early hours. I also love getting mates over to watch all the big races on TV and cooking up some good food. It’s been a great way to share the sport I love with my friends from outside the world of cycling

Finally, if you could have a coffee chat with anyone in the industry, who would it be and why?

Recently a colleague shared the website for an agency called Buttermilk, who are taking an interesting approach to influencer marketing. Their co-founder Jamie Ray said in a blog post ‘it is important to frame ambition against the reality of life - we are helping sell lipstick, not solving world peace.’ I thought it was really raw and honest and pretty punchy for a co-founder to say, especially knowing that clients and prospective clients would read it. It completely aligns with the way I think though, so it would probably be cool to grab a coffee with him.