Ticketmaster Australia and New Zealand has named Maria O’Connor as its new chairman, while Gavin Taylor has taken on the role of managing director for Ticketmaster Australia.
O’Connor has served as managing director of Ticketmaster Australia and New Zealand for the last 28 years and has now been promoted to a new role.
She joined Ticketmaster in 1983 when the company operated as BASS under the Victorian Government and will continue responsibility for her long-term industry relationships and look to grow Ticketmaster’s business in the region.
Taylor formerly served as chief executive of the West Australian Football Commission (WAFC), and previously worked as general manager at Perth Stadium Management. He will finish his role at the WAFC on November 12 before moving to Melbourne in early January to start his new role.
Ticketmaster has also announced a number of other senior executive promotions in Australia and New Zealand. Jim Kotsonis, who has been with the company since 2001 and served as finance and operations director, will move to the newly created position of executive vice-president of Ticketmaster Australia and New Zealand.
Justin Pule, who has been running the Ticketmaster New Zealand business since 2010, will now officially serve as managing director of the company. Harley Evans will continue as managing director of Moshtix Australia and New Zealand. Taylor, Pule and Evans will all report into Kotsonis under the new structure.
Additionally, Susie Kyrou, formerly of ad-tech giant Rokt, has been appointed to the new role of general manager of data and insights at Ticketmaster Australia and New Zealand.
Christian Seifert, the long-serving head of the Deutsche Fußball Liga (DFL) which runs the German Bundesliga, has announced he will leave the organisation when his contract expires in 2022.
Seifert has held the position of CEO since 2005 and signed a five-year deal in 2017.
“These are demanding times – and they call for clarity and reliability. That applies both to DFL as a whole and to my own professional ambitions. For this reason, I have informed the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of DFL of my intention to leave the company when my contract expires in June 2022,” he said.
“It is important to make my decision known now, so that the Supervisory Board have ample time to take account of it in their future organizational planning for DFL.”
The organising committee for the 2021 Rugby League World Cup in England has appointed Sophie Pontifex as its sponsorship lead.
Pontifex will take on responsibility for the management, activation and delivery of RLWC2021 sponsorships in the build-up to and during the tournament, which is scheduled to take place next October and November.
Pontifex previously served as a senior account manager at Octagon Worldwide, leading sponsorship partnerships such as Stella Artois and Wimbledon, AIG and the All Blacks, and Mastercard and the UEFA Champions League.
Enric Rojas has been named managing director of Kosmos Tennis, the investment group that provides backing for the Davis Cup men’s national team tournament.
Rojas has worked at the IMG agency for 13 years, spending nine years in Spain and four in London as senior vice-president and head of IMG Media for the EMEA region. He will replace Javier Alonso as managing director of Kosmos Tennis.
Alonso is stepping back from the forefront of Kosmos Tennis to dedicate himself to other group projects including EMR and Kosmos Studios. He will remain an advisor to the tennis project.
SecuTix has appointed Bertrand Vicainne as senior sales manager of its team in France.
He will be responsible for developing the offer and implementation of the firm’s solutions in the sports sector in France.
Bertrand has held strategic sales and ticketing management positions for major sports institutions such as the French Football Federation and for events such as the Rugby World Cup, UEFA Champions League and 24 Heures du Mans.
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.
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