Industry appointments round-up: Pro14 Rugby, StubHub, EAA and more

This week’s appointments round-up features moves involving Pro14 Rugby, StubHub and the European Arenas Association.

Tom Lister has started a new role as marketing director for Pro14 Rugby. Lister joins the competition from the Rugby Football Union, where he spent four years, most recently as head of customer strategy and CRM and head of marketing for England Rugby Hospitality.

In his new role, he will focus on growing the brand of the Pro14 and strengthening its fan base via digital channels, as well as enhancing its CRM strategy. The Pro14 features teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa and Wales.

Pro14 Rugby has also appointed Charl Crous to the newly-created position of head of operations. Crous will start his new role in June after spending eight years with South Africa’s Isuzu Southern Kings franchise.

Peter van der Veer has stepped down from his role as chief executive of the European Arenas Association and the Ahoy Rotterdam facility, which includes the 15,000-seat Ahoy Arena. Van der Veer was elected to the role in April 2018.

Van der Veer had served as co-chief executive alongside Jolanda Jansen, who confirmed to IQ Magazine that she will continue as solo chief executive following his resignation.

Variety has reported that Perkins Miller has left StubHub to take up a new role as chief executive of fan-culture platform Fandom. Miller had served as StubHub’s general manager for North America since 2016 and will take up his new role on February 11. He will be based in San Francisco.

Miller previously worked for NFL Media, where he served as chief digital officer and head of media operations. Discussing his new role, Miller told Variety: “I’ve spent my career trying to find a way to connect fans and content, and there’s really no better place to do that today than Fandom. I think there’s a runway for this business that’s massive over the next three to five years.”

Premiership Rugby is set to appoint Darren Childs as its new commercial chief, according to multiple reports. Childs has this week quit as chief executive of UKTV and he has also been linked to the vacant chief executive post at football’s English Premier League.

Sky News reports that Childs has no interest in the Premier League role and is instead being lined up by the Premiership to head up all broadcasting and other commercial rights activities.

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: Pro14 Rugby