Executive Transactions

The Dolphins have officially introduced DAWN APONTE as Senior VP/Football Operations. Aponte joins the team after spending a year as Browns VP/Football Administration. She fills the void left when MATT THOMAS left the Dolphins to join the Browns. Aponte will report directly to Exec VP/Football Operations BILL PARCELLS and GM JEFF IRELAND and will oversee the team's salary cap, player contracts and budgets (Dolphins). The Browns Monday officially introduced Thomas as VP/Football Operations after he spent the previous 12 years with the Dolphins (Lorain MORNING JOURNAL, 2/2).

ON A NEW TRACK: Brian Marks, a veteran marketing exec at Procter & Gamble and Mars, is starting his own motorsports-focused agency called TopSpeed Management. He will be based in Cincinnati and work with teams and individual drivers. Marks is already working to find sponsorship opportunities for Kyle Busch’s team in the Camping World Truck Series and IndyCar Series driver Arie Luyendyk Jr. Marks spent 15 years at P&G working on the Tide Racing program. At Mars for the last five years, Marks helped activate the M&M’s racing sponsorship at retail (Michael Smith, SportsBusiness Journal)

EXECS: NFL line judge Carl Johnson will replace the retiring Mike Pereira as the league's VP/Officiating in April. Pereira has held the post since '01 (AP, 2/2)....Cablevision has promoted CHARLES SCHUELER to Exec VP/Communications & Community Relations (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 2/2)....College Hockey Inc. has hired NHLPA Dir of Corporate Sponsorship KEVIN LOVITT as Senior Dir of Business Affairs (College Hockey Inc.)....Houston Baptist Univ. Monday removed the interim tag from AD STEVE MONIACI's title (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 2/2)....Southeast Missouri State hired Indiana Univ. Assistant AD FRANK CUERVO as Associate AD for External Affairs (SMS)....The Padres have hired former Arizona State Univ. head coach PAT MURPHY as Special Assistant to Baseball Operations (Padres)....Learfield Sports has appointed CURTIS MCKENNA and JORDAN LONG Account Execs for its Fresno State property (Learfield Sports)....The Wisconsin State Golf Association has promoted DAVID COHN to Dir of Member Services and hired GEOFF PIRKL as Assistant Dir of Rules & Competitions (WSGA)....Miami Marketing Group (MMG) has hired CHRISTOPHER HANDY as Partner & Managing Dir. Handy most recently worked with Agassi Enterprises (MMG).

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