Asia

People on the move: AELTC, Manchester United, Matchroom Sport and more

The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), organiser of the Wimbledon Championships, has appointed Gus Henderson as its new commercial director.

Henderson (pictured) has 20 years of experience working across commercial partnerships and media distribution in sport, music and entertainment and is currently based in Singapore after most recently serving as head of new business and brands in Southeast Asia and Korea for Universal Music Group.

Henderson will begin his new role with the AELTC on August 1 and will work closely with Alexandra Willis, who begins work as the company’s communications and marketing director on the same day. Prior to joining Universal in 2017, Henderson served as vice-president and head of sales in Asia-Pacific for WME-IMG, based in Hong Kong.

Manchester United executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward is to step down from his role at the Premier League club at the end of the year.

The announcement was made on the same night United announced its withdrawal from the controversial European Super League project. The club did not reference the project when announcing Woodward’s impending departure.

Woodward has served as executive vice-president of United since 2012 having joined the club in 2005.

Premiership Rugby has announced that Darren Childs will step down as chief executive of the organisation in the coming weeks.

The league said that Childs would focus on a wider range of business interests after leaving and will act as an advisor to CVC Capital Partners, which has been in partnership with Premiership Rugby since 2018.

Childs was appointed chief executive of Premiership Rugby in August 2019. Details of his successor will be communicated in due course.

Eddie Hearn is to become chairman of the Matchroom Sport Group of Companies, with his father Barry to step aside after almost 40 years to become president of the group in an advisory role.

Eddie will also become chairman of Matchroom Sport, the Professional Darts Corporation, Matchroom Boxing, Matchroom Boxing USA, Matchroom Media and the PGA EuroPro Tour.

Steve Dawson will also take over from Barry as chairman of World Snooker after this year’s World Snooker Championship, while Matthew Porter will become chairman of Matchroom Multi Sport and Katie Hearn will take up the role of chief executive of Matchroom Media.

Matchroom Sport was founded by Barry in 1982, with the company enjoying initial success in snooker before moving into boxing, darts, pool and tenpin bowling among other sports. In recent years, Eddie has assumed the role of group managing director and now becomes group chairman.

Haslam Sports Group, which owns the Cleveland Browns NFL American football team, has promoted Greg Rush to chief financial officer and hired Michele Powell as vice-president of event development.

Rush is in his 15th year with the Browns and HSG, while Powell joins the organisation from Monumental Sports and Entertainment, which owns the NHL’s Washington Capitals, the NBA’s Washington Wizards and Capital One Arena.

Powell will be tasked with identifying opportunities to attract and host events at all HSG venues, including the Browns’ FirstEnergy Stadium and the new home of Major League Soccer team Columbus Crew. Powell joined MSE in 2011 as a booking director and most recently served as senior vice-president and general manager of the company and Capital One Arena.

Rush has served as the Browns’ vice-president of finance for the past three years and will now take up the new role of chief financial officer.

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: AELTC