A round-up of key appointments from within the sports and events industries over the past week.
Brentford Football Club has confirmed that chief executive Mark Devlin is to leave his role at the end of December. The announcement comes as Brentford prepares to move to a new stadium (pictured) in 2020, and Devlin has decided that the time is right to move on after seven successful years at the club. Brentford confirmed in August that it will move into its new 17,250-seat stadium in the summer of 2020.
Victor de Bonis has taken up a new role as chief operating officer of Seattle Hockey Partners, the group set up to secure an NHL ice hockey franchise for the US city. De Bonis will work with chief executive Tod Leiweke to lead business operations strategically for the group. De Bonis has previously worked as chief operating officer of Canucks Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Vancouver Canucks NHL team and Rogers Arena, as well as its parent company, Aquilini Group.
Seattle Hockey Partners has also appointed Ken Johnsen as construction executive for OVG-Seattle, which is overseeing the planned renovation of KeyArena, where the new team would play. Johnsen has served as owner and principle of Shiels Obletz Johnsen, a Seattle-Portland development management firm, for the past 30 years. He was also the executive director for the Public Facilities District in Seattle, which designed and built Safeco Field, home to the Mariners, the city’s Major League Baseball team.
Mims Davies has replaced Tracey Crouch as UK Sports Minister following the latter’s resignation. Crouch, who earlier this year commissioned an official review into safe standing at football stadia, resigned last week after the government delayed plans to cut the stakes on fixed-odds betting terminals. Davies is the MP for Eastleigh and was first elected in 2015.
The Council of the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) has confirmed Dr Raffaele Chiulli as its new leader following the tragic death of Patrick Baumann. Chiulli, president of the World Powerboating Federation, will be endorsed at the GAISF General Assembly next May. Baumann, GAISF’s former president, died of a heart attack aged 51 at last month’s Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Mike Sharrock has been appointed as the new chief executive of the British Paralympic Association. He will succeed Tim Hollingsworth OBE, who is leaving to take up the same role at Sport England. Sharrock has held a 30-year international business career with BP, leading the company’s tier-one partnership with London 2012 and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
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Image: Brentford FC
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