Virgin Media has appointed former British Airways marketer KERRIS BRIGHT as its CMO, "after leaving the post vacant for 16 months."
Bright "has most recently worked in private equity, but is best known for overseeing the ‘To Fly, To Serve’ campaign as head of global marketing for British Airways." Bright "will oversee a marketing department with an expanded remit that will now include data, insight and analytics." She will report to COO DANA STRONG (MARKETING MAGAZINE, 1/6). ... WILL PROSSER "has been appointed as a director at Omnicom Media Group's sports and entertainment agency, Fuse." Prosser joined the agency from Vision Nine where he was client services director. His initial role "will be to lead a department of 15 as part of a maternity cover, working with a number of Fuse Sport + Entertainment’s top clients including HTC UK, Vodafone, Google, Ray-Ban, Royal London, McDonald’s, Luxottica and Disney" (EVENT MAGAZINE, 1/7). ... Bundesliga side VfB Stuttgart President BERND WAHLER announced that Finance Dir ULRICH RUF will resign from his position at the end of June. Wahler: "It is necessary to create new impulses also in this area to reorganize the VfB." Ruf, whose contract was set to expire in '16, will leave the club after 35 years on June 30. The top candidate to replace Ruf is ALEXANDER WEHRLE, who is an assistant to the club's management (STUTTGARTER NACHRICHTEN, 1/7). ... The ITF announced that ANDREW WALKER, formerly CMO of the WTA, will take over as ITF commercial director on Wednesday. He replaces KENNY MACLEOD, who leaves the ITF in mid-January.
Walker joined the WTA in '03 and played a leading role in sponsorship sales and activation plus sales and strategic projects in helping to drive the growth of women’s professional tennis. He was a key member of the revenue generating team that concluded WTA’s sponsorship deals and subsequent renewals with organizations such as Sony Ericsson, Whirlpool, Xerox, BNP Paribas and Rolex (ITF). ... Sports Recruitment Int'l announced the appointment of DAVID JAMES as managing partner, executive search.
Prior to joining SRI, David was global head of sport & leisure at CTPartners, one of the world’s largest search firms, working with some of the leading global sports clubs, governing bodies, government agencies, service providers, sponsors, rights holders, leisure venues and broadcasters. Previously, James was managing director of Compass Group’s UK Sports’ business and a former head of commercial for the Scottish Rugby Union (SRI). ... Oceania Football Confederation President DAVID CHUNG "was re-elected unopposed on Wednesday." The Malaysian born 53-year-old was first elected president of the 11-member association in '11 after former head REYNALD TEMARII of Tahiti "was kicked out after claims he offered to sell World Cup bid votes to undercover reporters" (REUTERS, 1/7).
COACHES/MANAGERS: The Bolivian Football Federation said that MAURICIO SORIA was appointed head coach of Bolivia's National Team for a period of four years. Soria, a former goalkeeper with the national team, replaced Spaniard XABIER AZKARGORTA after he was unable to help the team qualify for the 2014's World Cup in Brazil. His first challenge will be the Copa America, to be held in Chile in June (CONMEBOL). ... Greek football side Olympiakos has sacked coach MICHEL. The former Spain and Real Madrid midfielder "leaves with Olympiakos second in the Super League standings, a point behind leaders PAOK, and still in European competition" (PA, 1/6).
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