People on the move: CBS Arena, OVG and more

Coventry Building Society Arena, home of Championship football club Coventry City, has appointed Claire Harkness as its operations director.

Harkness (pictured left) will lead on transforming the live events strategy for the multi-purpose venue, and will also lead on matchday operations for football fixtures, exhibitions and live entertainment, and health and safety for events.

Harkness previously worked with the operations team at the CBS Arena on the delivery of last year’s concert from The Killers. She has also held senior positions with Glasgow City Council, Rangers, Liverpool, Levy and Liverpool City Council.

Venue development, advisory and investment company Oak View Group has appointed Ade Patton as its chief financial officer.

Patton will direct and oversee the global financial and accounting activities of the firm. He will be based in Denver, Colorado and report to OVG chairman and chief executive Tim Leiweke.

Patton most recently served as chief financial officer of HBO Max/Global DTC at WarnerBros Discovery. He previously held investment management roles at Millennium Management LLC and Citadel LLC.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has appointed Abi Tierney as its new chief executive.

Tierney, who currently serves as director general for customer services at the Home Office, will join the WRU by the end of the year. She also works as an ethics advisor for the Home Office and serves as chair of its people committee.

Tierney previously worked as a business development director at Serco, and as a director at University Hospitals of Leicester and Aberdeen City Council. She also spent time as marketing leader for IBM’s global services business.

At the WRU, she will take over from interim chief executive Nigel Walker, who has been leading the body following the resignation of Steve Phillips in January. Phillips resigned amid claims of misogyny, sexism and racism at the WRU.

The WRU announced last month that Walker had been appointed to a new position of executive director of rugby and he will take up this role permanently in coordination with Tierney’s arrival as chief executive.

Teodora Ivanova-Limon has joined Infinite Athlete as the technology company’s general manager of Europe.

She will oversee Infinite Athlete’s business development, strategic partnerships and investments across Europe. The appointment comes amid reports that Infinite Athlete is set to become the new shirt sponsor of Premier League football club Chelsea.

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.