Limelight Sports Appoints James Hogben As Managing Director
LimeLight Sports has announced an internal restructure which will see James Hogben, previously the agency’s Creative Director, promoted to Managing Director.
Craig Dews, the company’s CEO, will now oversee the group’s growing divisions, which also includes LimeLight Sports Club, the business which manages the group’s portfolio of events after acquiring Virgin Sport and which previously appointed James Robinson as Managing Director.
Hogben, who has been with the agency for 13 years, will assume his new role with immediate effect and will continue to report directly to Dews. His appointment is part of LimeLight’s accelerated growth strategy, which will also see LimeLight COO, Tom Kerry, move into a wider Group role alongside Dews with a particular focus on wider industry collaborations. Former Account Directors Gemma Marks and Ian Hayne have also been promoted to Joint Client Services Director.
Commenting on his new role, Hogben – who joined the Sport Industry Spotlight panel to discuss the physical activity sector in April – said: “I am really looking forward to working with so many talented people at such an exciting time for LimeLight Sports. I remain hugely proud of what we’ve achieved in 2020, despite the difficulties, and am excited by the increased demand for both our proposition and participation sport. I’m delighted to be leading the agency forward and it is great to see our strategy for accelerated growth coming to life.”
Craig Dews CEO, LimeLight Sports Group, added: “I am delighted that three of our most talented and experienced ‘LimeLighters’ will form an exciting new management team for the agency. Perversely, the pandemic and its impact on our work in 2020 has enabled us to accelerate our plans to grow LimeLight Sports Group significantly strengthening our offering to brands, partners and charities. It has also elevated the importance of our overall proposition – physical health, mental wellbeing and community have become very much more important in people’s lives and I believe major brands will increasingly be focussing on the active world and the mass participation sports sector as a key element of their marketing plans in the post pandemic world.”
This year, LimeLight staged the Blenheim Triathlon under COVID restrictions and says it is experiencing ‘sell-out demand’ for 2021 events, which will also now include the likes of the ASICS 10K and the Hackney Half – events which were acquired from Virgin Sport.
