Amanda Mann, Kurt Eklund and Francois-Xavier Bonnaillie
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We round up the latest movements from the stadium ecosystem…
Atlanta Hawks & State Farm Arena have appointed Amanda Mann as executive vice president and chief facilities officer.
In her new role, Mann will oversee the operations of all Hawks properties, including their business offices within Centennial Tower, the Emory Sports Medicine Complex and State Farm Arena. At the 17,000-seat State Farm Arena, she will also be responsible for the event, facility and financial management responsibilities of the venue, optimising the efficiency, profitability and fan experience for all attending the downtown venue.
Mann brings more than 25 years of experience in the sports and entertainment industries to the Hawks and State Farm Arena, having worked for the National Basketball Association’s Houston Rockets and Portland Trail Blazers and Live Nation Entertainment.
“We are excited to add Amanda to our executive team. She has a proven track record as an outstanding arena operator, event booker and revenue generator, bringing an analytical lens to not only optimize operations but also elevate the fan experience which drives our business. Her people-first leadership style will be felt by fans and our staff alike,” said Steve Koonin, Hawks and State Farm Arena’s chief executive officer.
Brisbane 2032 appoints CCO
Global commercial and marketing executive Francois-Xavier Bonnaillie has been named chief commercial officer of the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
Bonnaillie has served as the Paris 2024 Organising Committee senior director of partnership and licensing for the last five years, having previously held senior global commercial and marketing roles over three decades. He spent close to 25 years with multinational consumer goods corporation Proctor and Gamble.
Brisbane 2032 chief executive Cindy Hook: said “Francois-Xavier brings an impressive and broad international commercial background to the role, together with a unique understanding of the task ahead to raise significant sponsorship revenue for Brisbane 2032.
“I’m confident the success that Francois-Xavier and his team have delivered to the Paris 2024 Organising Committee will carry through to a new country, market and the Brisbane 2032 Games as we continue our commercial program preparations.”
Kurt Eklund has joined sports and real estate firm McCullers Group as project manager.
Eklund will focus primarily on predevelopment planning for the firm’s sports- and entertainment-anchored mixed-use developments. His role will include overall project planning, entitlement assessment, public development incentive identification and evaluation, market and submarket research and analysis, financial operating modelling, and project financing, including debt structuring.
Eklund joins McCullers from Oak Grove Ventures, where he served as an asset management consultant on commercial and retail redevelopment projects.
Childs takes RWC 2025 role
Dom Childs has become ticketing operations manager at Rugby World Cup 2025, which is to be staged in England.
Childs previously held senior ticketing roles at Wasserman, CSM Sport & Entertainment and London Irish Rugby Club.
Tickets for Good has announced that Don Orris has been appointed as president of the company’s North American business operations and expansion.
Orris has over 20 years of experience in the live event and ticketing industries having served as executive vice president of Ticketmaster where he directed the largest and most profitable of six North American regions consisting of the Western US including Hawaii.
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.
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