Appointments

People on the move: Yorkshire CCC, World Rugby, ASM Global and more

Images: Legends/NASCAR/ASM Global

Yorkshire County Cricket Club has appointed Stephen Vaughan, formerly of Premiership rugby union club Wasps, as its new chief executive.

Vaughan officially begins the role today (Monday) and joins Yorkshire after three years at Wasps Group, which he joined in August 2019 as chief executive of sports businesses.

He became group chief executive in 2020, with additional responsibility for venues, overseeing the naming-rights deal for the Coventry Building Society Arena and the return of Championship football club Coventry City to the stadium.

Check out our story from last week for the full details.

World Rugby has appointed Mick Wright as chief of operations within its new ‘EventsCo’ division.

Wright will work closely with World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin, chief of events Michel Poussau and the wider events operation teams as the federation transitions to a joint venture hosting model across its portfolio of global properties.

Wright served as executive director at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and also led the logistics planning and operations for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. He has also consulted for a number of major federations and events, including the International Olympic Committee, the English Football Association, and the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Wright has previously worked with World Rugby as head of tournament services for the 2015 Rugby World Cup in England and executive director of operations and event delivery for the 2019 tournament in Japan.

ASM Global has appointed Patrick Lynch as senior vice-president of private events in the US.

Lynch (pictured right) most recently worked as head of sales and customer success for e-commerce and marketing platform Mercato. At ASM Global, he will work closely with the company’s national sales force on new business opportunities for private events in the US.

ASM Global’s private event platform is home to a number of leading concerts and sporting events. The portfolio is available for a wide variety of events including company retreats, weddings, off-site meetings and fundraiser galas.

Édouard Donnelly has been named executive director of operations at the organising committee for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris.

The role will include responsibility for the operations of competition venues during the Games. Donnelly joins Paris 2024 having previously overseen the organisation of the 2017 World Men’s Handball Championship in France.

Donnelly also served as chief of staff to Étienne Thobois, chief executive of the 2007 Rugby World Cup in France, who is now chief executive of Paris 2024. Donnelly most recently worked as general manager of Be Sport, a sports social network company.

Premium experiences company Legends has appointed Joaquin Martinez as its chief revenue officer in Iberia.

Martinez (pictured left) has more than 15 years of experience in sport and event commercialisation and in his new role he will oversee the generation of traditional and non-traditional revenues of sports venues and clubs in Spain and Portugal.

Martinez has previously held senior positions at KPMG, Deloitte and Sportfive. He has worked with more than 20 stadium projects and teams such as Barcelona, Manchester City and Real Madrid.

Latasha Causey has been named as the new track president at Phoenix Raceway.

Causey (pictured centre), a Phoenix native, becomes the first female Black track president in NASCAR history and the second woman to hold the position at Phoenix Raceway. She will replace Julie Giese, who will finish her term as Phoenix track president before beginning her new position as track president of the new Chicago Street Course.

Oliver Mintzlaff has stepped down as chief executive and chairman of the board at RB Leipzig to take up a role at Red Bull, which owns the Bundesliga football club.

Mintzlaff will serve as chief executive of corporate projects and investments at Red Bull, whose co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz died last month aged 78. Mintzlaff will work at Red Bull alongside Franz Watzlawick, who becomes chief executive of the company’s beverage business, and Alexander Kirchmayr, who has been named chief financial officer.

Pakistan’s Tayyab Ikram has been elected as the new president of the International Hockey Federation (FIH).

Ikram, who was elected ahead of Belgium’s Marc Coudron, replaces Narinder Batra in the role. Batra resigned in July, citing personal reasons.

Ikram received 79 votes during Saturday’s FIH Congress meeting, with Coudron picking up 47. He will serve a two-year term to complete the mandate of Batra.

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.