Arsenal Promotes Vinai As Fox Joins Villa
Arsenal FC has appointed Vinai Venkatesham as its chief commercial officer, following Tom Fox’s move to Aston Villa as the club’s new chief executive officer.
Venkatesham has been with Arsenal for four years since joining from the London 2012 Organising Committee, where he played a key role in raising the £2 billion of private finance required to fund the Games through sponsorship, licensing, hospitality and broadcast deals.
He is currently Arsenal’s sales and marketing director, where he sits on both the Arsenal Executive team and the board of Arsenal Broadband Limited who own the club’s media rights. He will now step up into his new role after leading the sale and negotiations of the recent partnership with Puma and the contract renewal with Emirates.
In this new role, as well as his existing responsibility for Partnerships, Hospitality, Marketing, CRM and Business Strategy, Venkatesham will oversee the Retail and Arsenal Media teams.
Meanwhile, Arsenal chief executive officer Ivan Gazidis has wished Fox well in his new role: ‘Tom has played a leading role in our development over the past five seasons and I take it as a great compliment that members of the Arsenal team are sought after for the top jobs in the industry. I wish Tom all the best in his new position.’
Randy Lerner, Villa’s American owner, moved for Fox following the surprise departure of Paul Faulkner in July.
Fox originally joined Arsenal in 2009 from Wasserman Media Group., having previously held senior roles at Nike and Gatorade, and at one point was the managing director of NBA Asia.
