Belgian Division A side Standard de Liège President BRUNO VENANZI announced Sporting Advisor DANIEL VAN BUYTEN left the club. Club Sporting Dir OLIVIER RENARD will fill Van Buyten’s role and report to Venanzi (Standard de Liège). ... NBA Exec VP/Global Marketing Partnerships EMILIO COLLINS, "the league's top sales exec," is leaving the league in April after 15 years to join Excel Sports Management as chief business officer. Excel Founder & President JEFF SCHWARTZ said that Collins will help expand the company's corporate consulting business and "lead a foray into third-party sales representation." Current Excel corporate consulting clients include HSS, Porsche and Morgan Stanley. Schwartz said, "His relationships with brands should also benefit our athlete clients, and his experience and leadership will benefit Excel as a whole." Collins joined the NBA in '01 after five years with Integrated Sports Int'l and SFX Sports, which acquired ISI (Terry Lefton, Editor-at-Large). ... U.S. Soccer named EPL sports scientist JAMES BUNCE to the newly created position of director of high performance (N.Y. TIMES, 2/13). ... The MLB Chicago Cubs promoted KYLE EVANS to director of pro scouting, ALEX SUAREZ to director of int'l pro scouting and JASON PARKS to special assistant to the president & GM (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/10). ... Global marketing agency Lagardère Sports named two of its senior execs to new leadership positions in an effort to further the growth of its U.S. business. JAY DANZI has been appointed U.S. COO and MARC RICCIO has been named EVP, U.S. commercial sales and business development. As U.S. COO, Danzi will evaluate and develop new growth opportunities for the agency's domestic business, in addition to leading the development of a new centralized sales group. Riccio will lead a new, centralized sales and business development team supporting all of Lagardère Sports' U.S. businesses (Lagardère Sports).
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