Chelsea appointed a new CEO, Guy Laurence, who has been a director of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, according to Simon Johnson of the London EVENING STANDARD. The 56-year-old, who was born in Manchester, will start work next month and take overall responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the club. MLSE controls the NBA Toronto Raptors, NHL Toronto Maple Leafs and MLS side Toronto FC. Laurence was CEO of Vodafone UK and has been president and CEO of Rogers Communications in Canada (
EVENING STANDARD, 1/11). ESPN.com's Liam Twomey reported Laurence will become Chelsea's first formal CEO since the resignation of Ron Gourlay in Oct. '14 when he takes up his new post next month, and "will report to the club's three-person board" of Chair Bruce Buck and Dirs Marina Granovskaia and Eugene Tenenbaum. Laurence's appointment is the "latest step" in Chelsea's "concerted effort" to grow its commercial income. Commercial Dir Chris Townsend said in October that the club wants to take its revenues north of the £650M ($880M) mark "over the next seven to 10 years" by agreeing to a "wide range" of new commercial partnerships (
ESPN.com, 1/11).
