Features

People on the move: AOC, Adelaide Oval and more

Ian Chesterman has been elected as the new president of the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC).

Chesterman received 67 votes to be elected ahead of Olympian Mark Stockwell, who received 26 votes. He replaces John Coates, who has stepped down from the role after 32 years.

Chesterman was first elected to the AOC executive in 2001 and had served as vice-president since 2016. He also served as Chef de Mission for the Australian teams at six winter Olympics between 1998 and 2018.

Rob Kerin has been appointed as the new chair of the Adelaide Oval Stadium Management Authority.

Kerin (pictured), a former Premier of South Australia and the current chair of the South Australian Football Commission, will succeed Kevin Scarce, who has been chair since 2018. Kerin will serve a four-year term.

South Australian Cricket Association president Andrew Sinclair will continue in his role as deputy chair, while Scarce will remain as a director.

Mark Emmert will step down as president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), it has been announced.

The announcement was made by NCAA Board of Governors chair John DeGioia in mutual agreement with the board. Emmert will continue to serve in the role until a new president is selected and in place, or until June 30, 2023.

The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has appointed architect Luísa Rosa as its new director of heritage.

The 33-year-old is the first woman to hold a board position in the history of the CBF. Rosa has worked with the CBF since 2020 as its infrastructure manager and led the project to implement 15 football development centres across the country as part of a legacy fund from the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Before working directly with the CBF, Rosa worked as a sports architect at major sporting events in Brazil and around the world. She worked on the local organising committee for the 2014 World Cup, the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and the 2019 FIFA U17 World Cup. Rosa also worked as an architectural manager on maps and designs for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

English League One football club Charlton Athletic has appointed Brian Jokat as its new chief operating officer.

Jokat will operate from The Valley and will be responsible for all non-football operations such as ticketing, sales, sponsorships, communications, marketing and human resources. He will report directly to the club’s chief executive and owner, Thomas Sandgaard.

Jokat has previously worked at Greek club Olympiacos and has held a variety of senior-level positions within ice hockey.

Ticketing marketplace Vivid Seats has appointed Riva Bakal to the new role of chief product and strategy officer, while Ted Pickus has been named chief accounting officer.

Bakal has served as senior vice-president of strategy and product at Vivid Seats since February 2021 and previously worked as vice-president of strategy and corporate development. She joined the company after working at Grubhub from 2016 to 2018.

Pickus has worked as vice-president of accounting at Vivid Seats since 2018, having previously held several leadership positions since he joined the company in 2013.

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.