David Hobson, the project director for the Sheffield Olympic Legacy Park development, has announced his retirement as the site celebrates the completion of £100m (€117m/$139m) of investment.
Hobson has led the project for the past seven years and played a key role in the park’s legacy agreement with the British Olympic Association. More than 50 of Team GB’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes competing at Tokyo 2020 trained at the park’s English Institute of Sport Sheffield.
The development will now be led by Dr Chris Low, who will serve as the new chief executive of Legacy Park Ltd. Low will work closely with Scarborough Group International, which is bringing forward a masterplan for the next phase of development that will include up to 850,000 square feet of workspace and ancillary facilities across an 80-acre zone.
A key part of the project is the Legacy Stadium, which is due for completion at the beginning of 2022. The stadium will have a capacity of 3,900.
Scottish Premiership football club Hibernian has appointed Ben Kensell (pictured) as its new chief executive.
Kensell joins the Edinburgh-based club after recently leaving his role as chief operating officer at English Premier League team Norwich City. He previously held commercial roles at Arsenal and Charlton Athletic and has been involved in the delivery of events such as Wimbledon, Formula 1’s British Grand Prix and Royal Ascot.
Former US President Barack Obama has joined NBA Africa as a strategic partner.
President Obama will help advance the North American basketball league’s social responsibility efforts across Africa as part of the role. His work will focus on programmes and partnerships that support greater gender equality and economic inclusion.
President Obama will also have a minority stake in the new venture, which over time he intends to use to fund Obama Foundation youth and leadership programmes across Africa.
Catie Griggs has joined the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team as its new president of business operations.
Griggs has spent the last four years with Major League Soccer franchise Atlanta United, where she served as chief business officer. She will begin her new role with the Mariners in the week commencing August 23.
Griggs oversaw all aspects of the Atlanta United front office, including strategic decisions, match-day production and operations, supporter groups and broadcasting. She previously worked with Futures Sport & Entertainment, a cross-platform global media and sponsorships analytics consultancy, and prior to that spent five years at Turner Broadcasting.
Sam Windridge has started a new role as head of commercial development in the UK and Ireland at IT services company CM.com.
Windridge joined CM.com in October 2020 as a business development manager in the UK and Ireland, having previously worked as head of commercial at London Irish Rugby Club.
Dan Moriarty has been promoted to vice-president of marketing at NBA basketball team the Chicago Bulls.
Moriarty has spent over five years with the Bulls, initially joining the team as a digital director before becoming senior director of digital. He previously served as a digital consultant for the Chicago White Sox MLB team.
Brian Thomas has rejoined MLS team Los Angeles FC as a senior director of event services.
Thomas previously worked at LAFC as director of ticket operations and box office but left to become director of ticket operations at SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park in April 2020.
Audiovisual systems manufacturer Daktronics has hired Diane Gonzalez-Ferranti as an executive producer.
Gonzalez-Ferranti will be tasked with supporting Daktronics’ growth in the digital content creation space across all markets. She will be heavily involved in promoting the company’s creative and professional services offerings and will take on the overall task of delivering meaningful experiences to customers and audiences.
Australian sports marketing agency TLA Worldwide has hired Aysha Down as general manager of its Sydney client management division.
Down joins TLA Worldwide after a seven-year spell at Woolworths, where she led sports and integrated media partnerships for the brand. In her new role, she will lead TLA’s Sydney-based team and direct partnerships in the city.
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: Hibernian FC
