Features

Industry appointments round-up: October 27 to November 2

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

Christof Zogg has been named as the new chief executive of Starticket Switzerland. Zogg, who previously worked for Switzerland’s national railway company SBB, will take up the role in 2019. Zogg helped triple SBB’s digital ticket sales during his time at the firm.

John Walker has been appointed as the new president of business operations for Major League Soccer team Houston Dynamo and National Women’s Soccer League outfit Houston Dash. Walker has more than 30 years of experience in the sports industry and most recently worked as executive vice-president for business operations at NBA basketball team the Memphis Grizzlies. Walker will oversee all aspects of business operations for the Dynamo and Dash, as well as BBVA Compass Stadium (pictured) and Houston Sports Park.

Travel e-commerce company Booking.com has announced that Matt Swann has joined its leadership team as chief technology officer. Swann joins Booking.com from StubHub, for whom he also served as chief technology officer. Swann will lead Booking.com’s full stack technology strategy to support its continued growth in the travel and experiences sectors. Swann has also worked as chief information officer at Citibank, and vice-president and global payments chief at Amazon.

John Gibson has taken up a new role as head of live, EMEA, at e-commerce marketplace Groupon.

Irish Pro14 rugby union team Ulster has named Jonny Petrie as its new chief executive. Petrie will take up the role by the beginning of 2019 and will join Ulster from Edinburgh Rugby, where he has served as managing director since July 2015.

Cricket Australia chairman David Peever has resigned from his role in the wake of the ball-tampering scandal that engulfed the sport. Peever was recently re-elected for another three-year term but opted to resign after an independent report commissioned by CA labelled the body as partly to blame for the scandal.

Turnkey Search, a subsidiary of Turnkey Sports & Entertainment, has appointed long-time media executive Rick Alessandri to the talent recruitment/executive search firm’s team. Alessandri joins Turnkey as managing director and general manager of its growing media practice. He will oversee talent recruitment/executive search for media, digital and tech companies, along with non-media entities such as leagues, teams, venues, events and tours.

The Wisconsin Herd, the official NBA G League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks, has hired Olivia Hill as director of communications and community relations; Scott Jensen as director of marketing and digital; and Sidney Dobner as coaching/video assistant.

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: Victor Araiza