People

Baseball
The Detroit Tigers hired Connor Thinnes as suite sales and service account executive. Thinnes was a business account executive for the Florida Panthers.

Pfaff

The Long Island (N.Y.) Ducks of the independent Atlantic League promoted Michael Pfaff to assistant general manager from director of communications and Bill Harney to group sales manager from assistant ticket manager and named Chris Gee assistant ticket manager and Jeff Esposito manager of media relations.

Colleges
Arizona State University named Lisa Love vice president for university athletics. Love was senior associate athletic director at the University of Southern California.

Concessions

Dobransky

Sportservice named Richard Dobransky vice president of Well Bread Restaurant Services Group. Dobransky was senior vice president at Levy Restaurants.

Facilities

Hibbs

The Office Depot Center and the Florida Panthers promoted Chris Hibbs to senior vice president of corporate partnerships and building operations, Chad Johnson to senior vice president of sales and marketing, R.J. Martino to vice president of ticket sales, Kelly Moyer to vice president of information technology, Randy Moller to vice president of community development, youth hockey and broadcasting, Brett Stefansson to vice president/general manager of building operations, Gabrielle Valdez to senior director of marketing, Emerson Figueroa to director of operations and Jeff Remelius to operations manager. The arena, the Panthers and Incredible Ice named Tim Kyrkostas co-manager of hockey operations for Incredible Ice, Ron Cavallaro manager arena operations, Rhonda Reinhardt human resources and accounting coordinator for Incredible Ice and Brian Levine account executive new business development for the arena and the Panthers. Phil Mintzberg was promoted to co-manager of hockey operations for Incredible Ice.

Sports Resorts International Inc. named Rodney Wolter general manager of the Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway and Resort.

McGeough

Gateway International Raceway hired Blair McGeough as a corporate account manager.

Football
The Pacific Life Holiday Bowl named Toni Herrera coordinator of the newly licensed San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. Herrera was a sponsorship intern for the Holiday Bowl in 2004.

Marketing
Seth Abraham started his own marketing company, Starship SA. Abraham was president of Madison Square Garden/Radio City Entertainment.

Strategic Sports Group hired Michael O’Brien as business development manager. O’Brien was senior director of business development for Cellbucks Payment Networks.

Media
Bass/ESPN Outdoors named Kathy Kopacz associate director of promotional content. Kopacz owned a consulting business.

Sporting News Radio hired John Coulter as executive vice president of sales and Paul Talbot as vice president of sales. Coulter was president of Accelerated Connections and senior vice president with America Online’s interactive marketing division, and Talbot was national director of sales with America Online.

WireImage hired Justin Weiss as vice president of sales and operations for North America.

Golf Magazine promoted Ron Mulliken to advertising director.

Other
The National Shooting Sports Foundation promoted Christopher Dolnack to senior vice president from managing director of program development.

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Foundation named Wendy Evrard Lane and Kipp Nelson trustees.

Capital District Sports Inc. hired Joe Hennessy as vice president of sales for the Albany (N.Y.) River Rats of the American Hockey League and the Albany Conquest of Arena Football 2. Hennessy was GM of the AFL’s Philadelphia Soul.

Awards and Boards
The Canadian Football League named Tom Robinson chairman of its board of governors.

Marini

Alice Marini, Comcast-Spectacor vice president of human resources, received the Human Resources Professional of the Year award from the Sports and Entertainment Human Resource Forum.

Florida Citrus Sports named Dick Rivera chairman of the board, George Nahas president for 2005-06 and Tony Marin president for 2006-07. Elected to its executive committee were Ford Kiene, Drew Madsen and Cathy Weeden.

PEOPLE NEWS

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