A British free-style skiing champion in 1970s, he began marketing his fellow athletes, helping them find sponsors to permit them to compete.

[5] According to media outlets, Payne is "credited with turning the Games into a financial success" through the television and marketing deals he negotiated for the Olympics during his tenure.

Payne also acted as senior advisor for the winning Olympic bids of London 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2016 and Los Angeles 2028.

Nominated by Advertising Age, as one of the World’s 50 most influential marketeers, he has also written for leading newspapers including the Financial Times, Yomuiri Shimbun (Japan) and Forbes.

He has interviewed for over 100 media outlets including flagship television news programmes in the US (NBC, CNN) UK (BBC, Newsnight, Panorama) Canada (CBC) Australia (Channel 7) Japan (NHK, TV Tokyo) China (CCTV)  and Bloomberg, New York Times, Wall St Journal, The Guardian, Sunday Times, L'Equipe, AP, AFP, Reuters amongst others where he is frequently called upon to comment on the business of sport and politics and sport.