Dave Checketts, the former chief executive of The Madison Square Garden Company and president of the New York Knicks NBA team, is joining the board of directors at English Premier League football club Burnley.
The 65-year-old will sit on new owners’ ALK Capital’s board, which will be headed by Burnley chairman Alan Pace. The executive team will also feature Antonio Dávila, a professor of entrepreneurship, accounting and control and chair of innovation at IESE Business School.
Checketts will officially join Burnley in June after completing a three-year term of service as president of the LDS Church’s London mission. Checketts became the youngest chief executive in NBA history when he was appointed president and general manager of the Utah Jazz at the age of 28.
He then spent a year as general manager of NBA International before joining the Knicks in 1991 as president. Checketts went on to become president and chief executive of Madison Square Garden before starting his own firm, SCP Worldwide, in 2001. The company established Major League Soccer team Real Salt Lake in 2004.
ALK Capital partners Mike Smith and Stuart Hunt will also take seats on the Burnley board alongside former club shareholders Mike Garlick and John Banaszkiewicz.
The Jockey Club, which oversees the running of a number of UK-based racecourses, has named Charlie Boss as its new chief commercial officer, while Alexandra Goldschmidt and Hannah Grosvenor have also taken on roles as director of partnerships and national sales director, respectively.
Boss (pictured left) will join The Jockey Club from The Walt Disney Company in March and will be based at the group’s head office in London. He will report to chief executive Nevin Truesdale, who was promoted to the role in December.
Boss currently serves as Disney’s commercial director for sports across Europe and Africa, overseeing commercial activities for ESPN including digital media, content sales and direct-to-consumer services. He has previously worked at England’s Rugby Football Union and the FA.
Goldschmidt (pictured centre) formerly served as the NFL’s director of partnerships for the UK and most recently worked as commercial director at Harlequins. She joins The Jockey Club as director of partnerships on a fixed-term contract covering the maternity leave of Carey Weeks.
Grosvenor (pictured right) has been with The Jockey Club since 2008 and has been promoted to the position of national sales director. She previously held the positions of sales executive, business development manager, regional sales manager and regional head of sales.
Cipora Herman has taken up a new role as chief financial officer of the organising committee for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
Herman serves as vice-president of finance and treasury for Facebook and Yahoo! and previously worked as chief financial officer of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.
LA 2028 has also named Ashley Dos Santos as director of communications. Dos Santos most recently worked as the senior director of communications at ticketing giant Ticketmaster.
Gavin Forbes has been promoted to executive vice-president and managing director of tennis events at IMG, while Grant Slack will take on a similar role overseeing golf at the agency.
Forbes and Slack formerly served as senior vice-presidents and managing directors at IMG. Forbes has been with IMG for more than 30 years and has overseen the company’s tennis events business since 2018, while Slack joined the agency in 2005 as vice-president of golf for Asia before taking the lead with the company’s golf events business in 2016.
Roboticket has hired industry veteran Ian Sanders as its first-ever commercial director for the UK.
Sanders will lead and grow the company’s UK business and be responsible for the continued growth of Roboticket, as well as assisting international expansion and development opportunities outside of the UK.
Sanders previously spent several years at Ticketmaster, most recently as commercial director. He oversaw Ticketmaster Sport’s market growth across the UK, as well as ensuring retention of key clients.
Sanders said: “Roboticket is an amazing ticketing platform, and I’m delighted to be joining such a refreshingly innovative company. It’s great to be working with a truly modern ticketing platform that offers such advanced features, and an intuitive interface for both fans and clients. Our approach of simplifying and automating ticketing tasks as well as providing a great user experience is one, I am sure clubs will be extremely interested in.”
English League One football club Sunderland has named Steve Davison as its new chief operating officer.
Davison will oversee all non-football related functions at the Stadium of Light. He joins Sunderland after 35 years at engineering consultancy company Atkins, where he held a number of senior positions, including director of operations.
Checkout-free technology specialist Zippin has hired Gary Jacobus as senior vice-president of business development.
Jacobus most recently worked at SSP America, a leading operator of food and beverage concessions in travel locations. He previously held a similar role within Aramark’s sports and entertainment division and also held senior business positions with the NBA, NFL, IMG and the United States Tennis Association.
Zippin has installed checkout-free stations at the homes of the NFL’s Denver Broncos and the NBA’s Sacramento Kings and San Antonio Spurs.
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: The Jockey Club
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