Features

Industry appointments round-up: August 11-17

A round-up of key appointments from within the sports and events industries over the past week.

Matthew Felker has been appointed as the new general manager of Barclays Center (pictured) in Brooklyn, New York. Felker currently serves as general manager of NYCB Live, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and he will take up his new role on October 1. Barclays Center is the home of NBA basketball team the Brooklyn Nets and NHL ice hockey franchise the New York Islanders.

Joe Zino will replace Felker as general manager of NYCB Live. Zino currently serves as the assistant general manager of the facility. The promotions of Felker and Zino come with the upcoming departure of regional general manager Steve Rosebrook, who will be overseeing the transition for AEG Facilities.

Everton has appointed Colin Chong as its new stadium development director to support its ambition of delivering a new ground at Bramley-Moore Dock. Chong has more than 35 years’ experience in the development sector and has previously worked on large-scale redevelopment projects at Old Trafford and the Manchester Commonwealth Games stadium (now Etihad Stadium) and the building of Wigan’s DW Stadium.

Sean Ryan, vice-president of merchandising for sports and entertainment company AEG, is to join retail operation services provider Rank + Rally as vice-president of retail. The move comes after AEG agreed a deal for Rank + Rally to take over retail operations at venues including Los Angeles’ Staples Center and StubHub Center, as well as Target Center in Minneapolis.

Live Nation Entertainment has hired Amy Marks as the first executive vice-president, head of integrated marketing for Live Nation’s Media & Sponsorship division. Marks will be based in New York and will report to Russell Wallach, global president of Live Nation Media & Sponsorship. Marks joins Live Nation from Bloomberg Media, where she served as global head of marketing.

Keith Martin has been named as the new executive director of the multi-purpose Northwest Arena in Jamestown, New York. Northwest Arena was completed in 2002 and hosts ice hockey matches and other events, attracting over 250,000 turnstile visits annually.

AEG Presents, the live music division of AEG, has appointed Simon Jones to the newly-created position of senior vice-president, live music international. The creation of the role further builds on AEG Presents’ global presence and comes after the company opened a new Paris office at the start of the year. Jones will report to AEG Presents London chief executives Steve Homer and Toby Leighton-Pope, and will head up international promoting operations for AEG Presents UK.

Christine Pileckas has been promoted by SMG to director of booking and marketing for the 15,000-seat Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita, Kansas. Pileckas has served as the arena’s director of sales and marketing since 2012 and marketing manager since 2010.

Do you have news of an appointment that we should know about? Get in touch by emailing news.editor@thestadiumbusiness.com and we’ll include it on our next round-up.

Image: AEMoreira042281