When Simon Clegg looks out of the window of his office on the outskirts of the City of Dubai, he can see a lone palm tree standing on a sand dune surrounded by two square kilometres of desert.
It is a reminder that this corner of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates was once a camel farm. The tree — actually a Goeif — was one of many planted in the Seventies to provide shade for the animals.
In those days, the view to the Arabian Gulf was uninterrupted. Now there is feverish activity as a multi-billion-pound building operation begins to take shape.
Mr Clegg is chief operating officer of Expo 2020, the “great exhibition” to “showcase the achievements of the world’s nations”.
It is a massive undertaking for the former Army officer, who orchestrated the bid to bring the Olympics to London in 2012 and was CEO at the inaugural European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2015.
“I had to recalibrate my mind when I looked at the scale and complexity of delivering this incredible project. But it is a privilege to be involved,” he said.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, visited the site this week and took a helicopter ride for a bird’s eye view of the work. A driving force behind the project, he said he was encouraged by its progress.
Costing £7 billion, Expo 2020 is the latest in a string of expositions stretching back to the first Great Exhibition, staged in London in 1851. This one is backed by the financial muscle of the UAE and will be the biggest ever.
Expo 2020 is a festival of human ingenuity and its theme is Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.
The site — twice the size of Hyde Park — will be divided into three districts: opportunity, sustainability and mobility. Each will contain dozens of pavilions where countries can display innovative projects under one of those headlines. More than 180 nations are scheduled to take part and 120, including the UK, have privately confirmed their attendance.
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“I am delighted that the British Government is supporting this event. From Europe, we already have solid commitments from the UK, Italy and France and we are expecting more,” said Mr Clegg, 57.
“Clearly, there will be a great number of commercial opportunities. We are expecting 25 million visitors with 70 per cent from outside the UAE. After Brexit, Expo 2020 will be even more important.” Already, more than 1,085,000,000 Arab Emirates Dirham (£225,220,242) has been spent on the project since work began in September 2015 and the total budget is AED 33 billion (£7 billion).
More than 5,000 people are now working on the site. At the peak of building activity, in 2018 to 2019, there will be 37,000.
The exhibition is due to open its gates on October 20, 2020.
Mr Clegg, who already has a staff of 250 from around the world, said: “Our task is to complete work by 2019. We are up against a very tight time frame but we are determined to get there.”
He described the staging of the 2012 London Olympics as a template for the project. British companies already involved include Foster and Partners, Carillion and Grimshaw Architects.
“This is a genuinely global event,” said Mr Clegg. “But there is a very clear connection with London, not only with 2012, but also with 1851. That Expo led to the creation of Albertopolis, the cultural quarter in the west of the capital which includes the V&A, Natural History Museum and the Royal College of Music. We are committed to leaving a similar legacy here. Dubai’s metro line is being extended to this site, the new Al Maktoum Airport will open just beyond where the exhibition is taking place and Siemens have already committed to coming here in 2021.
“It is something for British companies and the Government, to very much be a part of. In many ways, this part of the world is light years ahead in terms of transport, sustainability and imagination in business.” Among the British workforce at the site are project manager Matthew Fitch, 28, from Reading, and health and safety manager Ian Holland, 35, from Glasgow. He said: “I have been here since November. It is a phenomenal job and we are absolutely focused on getting it done on time.
“But we are very conscious of the working conditions. Massive care must be taken with all the building equipment and we are very aware of the intense heat of working in desert conditions, and steps have been taken to provide safe and healthy working conditions.”
Matthew Utley, assistant principal at Grimshaw, which will design the main sustainability pavilion, said: “We see it as a great opportunity. This is going to be ground-breaking moment.” Edmund Mahabir, chief executive of Al Futtaim-Carillion, the Dubai-based construction and engineering firm, said: “This project is unique and will have a global impact.”
For Mr Clegg, who is sharing a villa with his wife Hilary, it means another four years away from the UK. But he has made it his life’s work to take on challenges, from managing 12 British Olympic teams to leading the lobbying campaign to stage the 2012 Olympics, and from being CEO of the European Games in Baku to running Ipswich Town FC and sacking volatile soccer star Roy Keane as manager.
Looking out over the desert, he admits this might be the biggest yet. “But it is a challenge I am really relishing,” he said.