Appointments

People on the move: Wembley, ASM Global and more

Featured image credit: ASM Global/Wembley/FA

Featured image credit: ASM Global/Wembley/FA

Wembley Stadium has promoted Paul Smyth to the role of general manager.

Smyth (pictured centre) moves up from his previous position as head of event operations. In his new role, he will be responsible for overseeing the delivery of events at Wembley, in addition to managing day-to-day operations.

Smyth has been a part of the Wembley team since the stadium opened in 2007. His promotion coincides with the departure of stadium director Liam Boylan who is leaving after nine years.

Chris Bryant, currently director of tournaments and events at the FA, will serve as the interim stadium director.

ASM Global has appointed Anna Sjölund to the new role of European programming director.

Sjölund (pictured left) will be based in the company’s Stockholm office, focusing on the growth of the business in the Nordics region. She will be responsible for developing and curating a diverse calendar of events for ASM Global in the region.

Her role will include programming for ASM Global’s leading portfolio of venues in the region, including Friends Arena, Tele2 Arena and Avicii Arena. Sjölund previously spent 24 years at Live Nation.

Football clubs in England’s Women’s Super League (WSL) and Women’s Championship (WC) have agreed to proceed with the formation of a new organisation, which will be led by chief executive Nikki Doucet.

As chief executive of NewCo, Doucet (pictured right) will manage and oversee all aspects of the WSL and WC, including the transition of both leagues to the new body for the start of the 2024-25 season. Doucet has over 20 years of experience in the sport and financial sectors and previously served as general manager of Nike Women UK & Ireland.

Read our story from last week for full details.

Event Site Design, a site design and CAD planning specialist, has appointed Jackie Slade as head of design.

Slade has more than 20 years of experience in the field and previously led the site design and site management at Glastonbury Festivals. Most recently, she was an overlay manager for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and took ownership of the design and delivery of the event’s Smithfield venue.

Major League Baseball team the New York Mets has appointed M. Scott Havens as president of business operations.

Havens will be responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership for the Mets, overseeing the senior leadership team for all front office functions except baseball operations. He will report to Mets owner, chairman and chief executive Steve Cohen.

Havens most recently served as chief executive of Bloomberg Media.

Choi Jung-gu has been appointed president of the organising committee for next year’s Winter Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, South Korea.

The organising committee had previously been operating under the co-presidency of multiple Olympic gold medalists Lee Sang-hwa and Jin Jong-oh, who will continue supporting the promotional side of Gangwon 2024.

The Games will take place from January 19 to February 1 and will be held at some of the venues that were used during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

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.