Asia

Appointments round-up: ECB, F1, Eventbrite and more

This week saw Ian Watmore unveiled as the new chair of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

The 61-year-old, who served as group chief executive of the English Football Association (FA) from 2009 to 2010, will take up the role on December 1. He will succeed Colin Graves as ECB chair.

Watmore (pictured) was an independent board member for England’s Rugby World Cup in 2015 and a member of the board of the English Institute of Sport and the English Football League (EFL). While with the FA, he helped launch the Women’s Super League and the St. George’s Park project.

Watmore’s appointment will be ratified by ECB members during its AGM on May 13. He will shadow Graves in the upcoming months to ensure a smooth transition.

The Formula One motor-racing series has named Ben Pincus as its new director of commercial partnerships after Murray Barnett stepped down from the role after three years.

Pincus will take up the role on March 2, reporting directly to F1 chairman and chief executive Chase Carey. Pincus joins from Heineken International, having managed the company’s worldwide sponsorship team for the past three and a half years.

Pincus has previously ran sponsorships in European football, international golf, tennis and sailing for Visa, Coca-Cola, Sony PlayStation and Heineken.

Barnett joined F1 in April 2017 following Liberty Media’s acquisition of the series.

World Athletics has named Jakob Larsen as its new director of competition and events.

The 50-year-old Dane, who led the organising committee behind last year’s World Athletics Country course in Aarhus, has been selected after a worldwide search. Larsen has served as the chief executive of the Danish Athletics Federation for the past 12 years, during which time he has helped grow revenues by 800 per cent.

He will take up his new role in early April and will be based at World Athletics’ head office in Monaco.

Ticketing and event technology platform Eventbrite has named Emelia Hinge and Rohan Lawton as senior business development managers in the Asia-Pacific region.

Hinge joins the company having previously worked at Federation Square, Visit Victoria and the Canberra Convention Bureau. Lawton has held various roles with Tennis Australia, Cricket Australia, Active Network and IMG.

The United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) has appointed Lisa Baird as its new commissioner.

Baird will oversee all operations for the league and NWSL Media, with a focus on growing revenues and audience, as well as elevating the global profile of the league. She will take up the role on March 10.

Baird most recently served as the chief marketing officer for New York Public Radio and previously spent a decade as the chief marketing officer for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC).

Arena Racing Company has appointed Rachel Corden as its greyhound operations director.

Corden, who currently serves as director of Nottingham Greyhound Stadium, will oversee the business and commercial operations of ARC’s five greyhound stadia. She will report directly to ARC’s racing division managing director Mark Spincer.

Corden was appointed to the role following ARC’s acquisition of Nottingham Greyhound Stadium. The venue adds to ARC’s portfolio of greyhound stadia, which also includes Belle Vue, Newcastle, Perry Barr and Sunderland.

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 in our next round-up.

Image: ECB