Premier League football club Chelsea has confirmed the appointment of Chris Jurasek as its new chief executive.
Jurasek will take responsibility for all business areas of the club and will report to the board alongside co-sporting directors Laurence Stewart and Paul Winstanley. News of Jurasek’s appointment was first reported earlier this month.
Chelsea has also confirmed that president of business operations Tom Glick has stepped down from his role to pursue other opportunities. He will work with Jurasek in the coming months on the transition before departing the club.
Jurasek is an operating executive at Clearlake Capital, which co-owns Chelsea alongside US businessman Todd Boehly.
Jurasek said: “I’m delighted to be joining Chelsea, a club which is loved and followed all over the world. I’m enormously proud to be leading it into the next chapter in its rich history.
“We have huge opportunities to grow on and off the pitch and to engage our exceptional fans both in London and wherever they are supporting us from. I’m looking forward to working closely with our owners, leadership and everyone around the club.”
German Bundesliga club Bayern Munich has announced that Oliver Kahn has been sacked as chief executive, with Jan-Christian Dreesen appointed as his replacement.
Dreesen has been chairman of the board at Bayern for the past 10 years. He had originally planned on leaving the club at the end of the 2022-23 season but will now assume the role of chief executive.
Kahn, a former goalkeeper for Bayern, was appointed to the club’s board in January 2020 and was named chief executive in July 2021, replacing Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Elsewhere in football, Dutch Eredivisie club Ajax has announced that Edwin van der Sar has resigned as chief executive after almost seven years in the role.
He will hand over his duties to his fellow members of the executive board on June 1. Van der Sar has been part of the Ajax management team since November 2012, initially working as director of marketing.
Van der Sar has served as chief executive since November 2016 and also holds board positions at FIFA, UEFA and the European Club Association (ECA). His contract at Ajax had been due to run until June 2025.
Back in England, Southampton’s majority owner Sport Republic has made several organisational changes in preparation for next season, which the club will spend in the Championship following relegation from the Premier League.
Martin Semmens has left his role as chief executive and director of the club. Semmens joined the club’s board of directors in 2017 and was appointed chief executive in 2019.
Sport Republic will take full operational control of the club with immediate effect, with Dragan Šolak having been appointed chairman of the company. Rasmus Ankersen will continue as chief executive of Sport Republic, overseeing football strategy, with Henrik Kraft to continue as chairman of the club.
Kraft will also act as interim chief executive until the appointment of a new chief executive. Southampton has also appointed Andy Young, previously chief financial officer at City Football Group, as its first independent director.
Sanjay Patel, managing director of The Hundred, is to leave the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) after the conclusion of this year’s competition.
Patel led the creation and launch of the competition, which attracted attendances of more than one million over its first two years. He joined the ECB in 2015 as chief sales and marketing officer before adding responsibility for The Hundred in 2018. The competition has been his sole focus since January 2019.
Patel said: “I will miss this job and the people immensely but once we’ve completed the third season of The Hundred I believe the time will be right for me to look for a new adventure.”
Steve Eckerson has been appointed general manager of the ASM Global-operated Pechanga Arena in San Diego.
Eckerson previously worked for ASM Global at Bakersfield’s Mechanics Bank Arena, Theater and Convention Center since 2016, serving as general manager. Prior to that, he served as general manager for Toyota Arena in Ontario, California.
Eckerson succeeds Steve Tadlock as general manager of Pechanga Arena. Tadlock was recently named senior vice-president of venue relations at LiveCo, the private equity-backed entertainment company led by Brian Becker.
Stadium Experience, a not-for-profit marketing collaboration of around 40 football, rugby and cricket club venues across the UK, has added Jacqui Page, Jenni Ford and Marc Lee to its leadership.
Page is the business development manager for Sodexo Prestige Venues & Events, working on all Sodexo Live conference and event sites across the UK. She joined Sodexo 12 years ago as a venue sales manager.
Ford is the director of sales and marketing at Coventry Building Society Arena, home of Championship club Coventry City. She joined the stadium in 2014 as business development manager.
Lee is the sales manager at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium Experience, having joined in 2017. Principality Stadium Experience was formed in 2014 as a joint venture between the Welsh Rugby Union and Compass Group.
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.
Share this