The Indian Premier League’s (IPL) Rajasthan Royals have promoted Jake Lush McCrum to the role of chief executive.
Lush McCrum initially joined the franchise as general manager, before being named chief operating officer in July 2019, going on to play a key role in the digital transformation of the business.
In his new role, Lush McCrum will focus on ‘building a world class management team to execute the expansive vision that he and the board have set out’, the Royals said. According to the franchise, the vision has a core aim of ‘transforming society through cricket, and cricket through innovation’.
In addition, Mike Fordham is taking on the role of chief executive at Royals Sports Group, the holding company of the Rajasthan Royals. He will be responsible for scaling the organisation’s global expansion efforts, as well as investing in other cricket properties and sports ventures.
Elsewhere, the Football Association (FA) has announced that Michelle Walder, a non-executive director at Brighton & Hove Albion, has been elected onto the board as a Women’s Super League (WSL) representative. She will be joined by Lewes FC chief executive Maggie Murphy, who will represent the Women’s Championship. The two will replace Manchester City’s Omar Berrada and Susan Whelan of Leicester City.
Meanwhile, international sports marketing agency Octagon has promoted Simone Errey to the role of managing director for Australia. The company has made a series of other promotions, with Marianne Rotole named as executive vice president of client services, Brian Smith as executive vice president of people and culture, and Kami Taylor as executive vice president of experiential.
Ticketing platform Logitix has promoted Stuart Halberg to chief executive, while it has also named Kurt Schneider as executive chairperson, Eric Ingram as chief financial officer and Trent Stewart as head of engineering.
Appointments
Andrea Duilio
Chief executive, Sky Italia
Previously: Consumer business unit director, Vodafone Italia
Catie Griggs
President of business operations, Seattle Mariners
Previously: Chief business officer, Atlanta United
Brian Borkowski
Senior vice president, marketing, FanDuel Group
Previously: Vice president, media and acquisition, Hulu
Rouven Kasper
Chief marketing and sales officer, VfB Stuttgart
Previously: President Asia, Bayern Munich
Nick Bower
Sports sales director, 10 ViacomCBS
Previously: Senior vice president partnerships, Football Marketing Asia (FMA)
Jeremy Darlow
Vice president, marketing, Sleeper
Previously: Director of brand marketing – football and baseball, Adidas
Ben Kensell
Chief executive, Hibernian Football Club
Previously: Chief operating officer, Norwich City
Conor Wood
Head of PPV (Main Event), Foxtel
Previously: Senior vice president, SportBusiness
Tom Brandhorst
Creative director, Footballco
Previously: Editorial director, Copa90
Departures
Alex Leitão
Chief executive, Orlando City SC
Notes: Leitão’s exit comes after the Wilf family completed its purchase of the Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise. Leitão will remain involved as a soccer operations advisor to the organisation.
