Source: Telegraph
Arsenal look to America to appoint new commerical director Tom Fox
The arrival of Fox is part of an attempt by Arsenal to narrow the gap to their main rivals in that area, with chairman Peter Hill-Wood having recently admitted that there was catching up to be done in relation to Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid. [LNB]Improving the commercial side of the business is a major priority of new chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who himself was the former deputy commissioner at Major League Soccer. [LNB] Related ArticlesEduardo fit to face PortsmouthArsenal v Portsmouth previewWenger happy to sit tightWenger is right about super leagueAlso joining Fox at Arsenal are a new general counsel, Svenja Geissmar and Trevor Saving, who will be the heads of people and operations. [LNB]'The collective business acumen of our three new appointments will be a huge asset to Arsenal Football Club and is just another sign of our ambition for the forthcoming years,' said Gazidis. [LNB]Arsenal's largest individual shareholder is also American billionaire sports team owner Stan Kroenke. [LNB]Fox started his career at former Gatorade parent company Quaker Oats in 1985 in its brand management programme and moved into Gatorade's sports marketing department in 1988. [LNB]In 1993, Fox joined The National Basketball Association (NBA) to become director of sponsor programs for NBA Properties, before moving to Hong Kong in 1995 to become vice president and managing director of NBA Asia. [LNB]After leaving the NBA, Fox moved to Nike, Inc in Feb 1997 to run the company's Asian sports marketing business before progressing to Nike's US operations as sports marketing director. [LNB]Fox returned to Gatorade in 1999 as senior vice president, sports marketing and then moved to Wasserman Media Group (WMG) in April 2007. [LNB]Fox officially starts his new role with Arsenal on Aug 24, Geissmar begins on Sep 21, with Saving having started with the club on Aug 3. [LNB]
