Appointments

People on the move: FAI, Indiana Fever and more

Featured image credit: Football Association of Ireland

David Courell has been announced as the permanent chief executive of the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).

Courell (pictured centre) has been serving as interim chief executive since April, following the departure of Jonathan Hill. Courell joined the FAI in February 2022 as its chief operating officer.

He started his career in the UK as a management consultant with Deloitte and moved into the sports industry with senior roles across Olympic and Paralympic sport. Prior to joining the FAI, he worked at the English Football Association (FA).

Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) team Indiana Fever has named Amber Cox as its chief operating officer and general manager.

Cox will join the team on October 28, with Lin Dunn, the Fever’s current general manager, to move into a new position as senior advisor. Cox previously served as chief operating officer of the Dallas Wings, and as vice-president of sports for the Connecticut Sun.

She also led business operations during the inaugural season of National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) team Kansas City Current. Cox joins the Fever amid heightened interest in the team following the arrival of Caitlin Clark at the start of the season, with attendances having significantly risen both for the team and across the WNBA.

Cricket West Indies has announced the appointment of Lynford Inverary as its new chief operating officer and acting chief executive.

Inverary most recently spearheaded the formation of CWI’s 2024-27 strategic plan. His appointment as chief operating officer was effective from October 1, and his role as acting chief executive will commence on November 1 following the departure of Johnny Grave.

Grave has served as chief executive of CWI since February 2017 and was chief executive for this year’s T20 World Cup, which the West Indies co-hosted alongside the US.

Staidium, a Dallas-based sports technology company, has announced the appointment of Michael Hibbert as senior vice-president.

Hibbert has previously worked for CBS, HBO, The New York Times, Viacom, Intive and MediaKind.

His appointment comes after Staidium recently named Kevin Moore as its new managing director for US operations. Moore joined Staidium after an eight-year spell at Premier League club Liverpool.

Adrian Filby has taken up a new role as chief commercial officer at Premier League club Aston Villa.

Filby joins Villa from Scottish Premiership outfit Celtic, where he spent 16 years as commercial director. In his new role, he will report to Villa’s president of business operations, Chris Heck.

Chris Timson has been named head of product at Tixbase following the company’s acquisition of Spotlite, which he co-founded.

Timson led product and design at Spotlite, developing technology to better meet the needs of event organisers and attendees.

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.