DMSE Sports

Dave McGillivray

BAA Boston Marathon® Race Director,
President, DMSE Sports, Inc.

As the founder and president of DMSE Sports, Inc., a special-event management company, McGillivray has produced or consulted on more than 900 mass-participatory athletic events throughout the world, including 23 Boston Marathons; the 2004 and 2008 USA Women’s Olympic Marathon Trials; the 1990 Triathlon World Championship, the 1998 Goodwill Games Triathlon, and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games. 

Founded by McGillivray in 1981, DMSE Sports is a world leader in sports event management.  DMSE specializes in creating, marketing and producing mass participatory athletic events throughout the U.S. and abroad.  McGillivray is also an accomplished motivational speaker.  More than 1,600 audiences from corporate executives to high school students have experienced McGillivray’s signature ability to engage and inspire listeners.

His 30-year career in the sport of road racing and triathlon earned him the prestigious “Lifetime Achievement Award,” presented to him by Competitor Magazine.  McGillivray was also presented with the prestigious "Race Director of the Year" award by Road Race Management, Inc., and sponsored by Running Times Magazine.  In 2005 he was inducted into the Running USA Hall of Champions.

There is an intrinsic relationship between McGillivray and the sport of running. He is not only one of the world’s finest race directors, he himself is an accomplished athlete, perhaps best known for his extraordinary run across the United States from Medford, Oregon to his hometown of Medford, Massachusetts in 1978 covering a total distance of 3,452 miles, benefiting the Jimmy Fund and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. 

Not one to rest on his laurels, he and ten other veteran marathoners ran across the country in May 2004 as part of TREK USA which raised money for five children’s charities.  McGillivray has also completed eight Hawaii Ironman Triathlons and has run 125 marathons, including 38 consecutive Boston Marathons. He has run up the East Coast of the US and completed a 24-hour run, a 24-hour bike ride and a 24-hour swim, all for charity.  In addition, each year McGillivray commemorates his birthday by running the number of miles that correspond with his age.  What began with 12 miles at age 12 will be a 57-mile run on his next birthday, August 22, 2011.

The Last Pick, (Rodale Press), authored by McGillivray (with Linda Glass Fechter), was  published in April 2006.  It chronicles his career while motivating and inspiring the reader to never underestimate their own ability to set and achieve goals. 

Running is the tool he uses to set  and achieve goals, motivate others, maintain health, both mental and physical and give back to the community.  The DMSE Children’s Fitness Foundation is McGillivray’s newest endeavor which supports non-profit organizations whose efforts are directed at solving the epidemic of childhood obesity by providing direct funding to treatment and prevention programs. 

McGillivray creates event experiences that leave an indelible mark on the participants.  He has the respect, trust, experience, confidence, leadership, and vision of a pioneer in the sport.  Boston Marathon legend Johnny Kelley once described McGillivray as a “genius.”  Dave McGillivray serves as a role model for all of us who seek to be the very best in our professional and personal lives.  McGillivray lives in North Andover, Massachusetts with his wife, Katie and five children, Ryan, Max, Elle, Luke and Chloe.