MANA Sports and Entertainment Group was founded by Chris McCormack and Wojciech Kruczyński, uniting two high-performing entrepreneurs with complementary strengths in sport, events, and entertainment.
McCormack’s commercial, consulting, and asset-building background matched with Kruczcyński’s powerful event operations capabilities created a comprehensive agency from day one with client and partner networks across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific.
McCormack brought a world champion’s mindset to the business, having transitioned seamlessly from elite sport into high-performance development at the end of a 20-year professional career. A four-time triathlon world champion with two Ironman World Championship titles, New York Times-bestselling author, and one of the most commercially successful triathletes of his era, he led the multimillion-dollar build-out of Thanyapura Sports Resort alongside the United World College in Phuket, Thailand.
This gave him a launchpad for a successful consultancy in sport, wellness, and logistics which attracted clients such as the Royal Family of Bahrain, supporting the development of national sporting assets and the Bahrain Olympic Committee, and contributing to the formation and acquisition of teams including the Bahrain Victorious 13 Triathlon Team, Bahrain McLaren WorldTour Cycling Team, and McLaren Formula 1 Racing. He also co-founded Super League Triathlon (now known as Supertri), the biggest and most–watched professional triathlon league in the world.
Kruczyński was the director of Endu Sport and the founder of the Enea Tri Tour, the largest triathlon series in Poland. In addition to cycling events across the country, he had extensive experience in the entertainment sector, delivering concerts and television productions throughout Poland and into the United Kingdom.
The two first worked together on what became the biggest triathlon event in Poland: the Poznàn Triathlon Festival grew from an event of 1,200 competitors to more than 10,000 athletes competing over the weekend under the Challenge Triathlon brand, and later hosted the European Championships for triathlon and multisport. After also successfully delivering the first Super League Triathlon event in continental Europe, both saw the power in synergy and the multiplier effect of working together, beginning the merger in 2018.
Rooted in McCormack’s Maori heritage, the new entity was named Mana, after the Polynesian concept of having spirit, drive, commitment, integrity, reputation, power and pride conferred through excellence of service and association.
A significant catalyst in Mana’s evolution was the recruitment of Trent Taylor as CEO. His leadership enhanced structures and sophistication, and married Mana’s strategic vision with its operational and business execution.
