Asia

People on the move: Live Nation, CSM and more

Roger Field, the current chief executive of Live Nation Australia & New Zealand, has been named president of Live Nation Asia Pacific as part of a number of senior leadership roles at the live entertainment giant.

Mark Kneebone has also been named managing director of Live Nation New Zealand, while Kei Ikuta has been promoted to president of Live Nation Japan. Paul Antonio, the current president of Live Nation Asia & Middle East, takes on the new role of chief operating officer at Live Nation EMEA.

Field joined Live Nation in 2010 to set up Live Nation Australia in partnership with Luke Hede. In his new role, he will oversee all of Live Nation’s businesses across the Asia Pacific region and will report to Live Nation Asia Pacific chairman Alan Ridgeway.

Kathryn Kai-ling Frederick has also started a new position as chief marketing officer at Live Nation Entertainment. She formerly served as chief marketing officer at Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster.

CSM Sport and Entertainment has announced that current CSM North America chief executive Dan Mannix (pictured centre) is transitioning from his role into a senior advisor position.

Christa Carone (pictured left), currently president of CSM North America, will assume Mannix’s role as leader of the firm in North America. Mannix assumed the chief executive role in May 2018, while Carone joined as president of North America in January following her leadership role as president of Group Nine Media.

Carone will be responsible for the collective success of CSM’s North American businesses including partnerships for rights-holders, sponsorship strategies for brands, virtual and in-person consumer experiences, production services, and league marketing and management.

Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, which oversees the running of the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and the Prudential Center arena, has named David Gould as its chief diversity and impact officer.

In the newly-created role, Gould will lead HBSE’s internal and external diversity and inclusion standards, programmes and initiatives across the organisation. His appointment comes after HBSE’s managing partners unveiled its racial equity action plan, which includes a $20m (£15.6m/€17m) commitment to fight systemic racism and champion equality.

The French Football League (LFP) has named Arnaud Rouger as its new director general.

Rouger served as the LFP’s director of competitions from 2003, and he will replace Didier Quillot in his new role. Rouger’s appointment comes after the LFP recently elected Vincent Labrune as its new president.

German Bundesliga football club Hertha Berlin has named Carsten Schmidt as its new chief executive, effective from December 1.

Schmidt previously served as chief executive of German pay-television broadcaster Sky Deutschland, for whom he remains a senior adviser. At Hertha, he will be directly responsible for the club’s marketing, sales, strategy, corporate communications and internationalisation.

Formula 1 motor-racing team Racing Point has named Jefferson Slack (pictured right) as its new managing director of commercial and marketing.

Slack will report to Otmar Szafnauer, chief executive and team principal at Racing Point. Slack has worked within the sports industry for 30 years and began his career managing Michael Jordan’s marketing activities before moving into sports private equity with Hicks, Muse.

In 2000, Slack became the first American chief executive of Serie A football club Inter Milan. He has also held roles at Wasserman and IMG and served as a commercial adviser to FIBA and Dorna.

Roger Hooker has started a new role as event operations director at the Formula E electric car-racing series.

Hooker will be responsible for the delivery of race venues and services, overseeing event management, venue operations, track overlay and brand delivery, security and accreditation operations, and integration of race-related technology delivery.

Ravin Pankhania has joined the leadership team of Stadium Experience, a not-for-profit marketing collaboration comprising over 50 major football, rugby and cricket venues across the UK and Ireland.

Pankhania is the venue sales manager at Kingsholm Stadium, home of Premiership rugby union club Gloucester. He will assist with the management of Stadium Experience, whose leadership team includes staff from the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

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.