Leicester Tigers board member Andrea Pinchen has been promoted to a new role of chief operating officer at the club.
The new executive post will see her drive the development of key personnel and promote club culture, both at its Welford Road ground and Oval Park training ground in Oadby.
After joining Tigers from in 2004 as ticket office manager, she became commercial manager in 2012 with overall responsibility for sponsorship, corporate hospitality and the club’s conference and events business.
She joined the board as commercial director two years later and helped restructure the club’s commercial operations.
That work coincided with a push towards non-matchday events such as conferences and weddings, and ensuring that sponsors and fans were aware of the opportunities to use club facilities during the week.
She has also been involved in discussions for a new hotel the club plans to build on the former Granby Halls site to the north of the recently expanded stadium, which has a capacity for almost 26,000 fans.
This summer it was announced that Tigers had been put up for sale for an estimated asking price of £60 million.
The work she will undertake now has been identified as a vital element in the club’s future following a review of the business conducted by former Tigers director of rugby Pat Howard earlier this year.
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Ms Pinchen said: “When I started working at the club – when the ticket office was in a converted garage in the corner of a 16,000-capacity stadium – Geordan Murphy was a key player in a successful team.
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“I think the experience of working together and seeing how the club has grown is important in driving the club’s overall strategy and culture for what we hope is a very successful future.”
As part of this strategy, together with the impending retirement of the Glynis Barnes from the Tigers HR department, the club has appointed Matt Johnson as head of human resources to work on a comprehensive development, training and review programme for staff.
Tigers chief executive Simon Cohen said: “We all hope that Pat’s report will be a turning point for on-the-field performance while Andrea’s appointment to drive many of the recommendations is a significant step forward for the whole club as well as a reflection of her work within the commercial departments over 15 years at Welford Road.”
The club also reinforced the team at Oval Park this summer with the appointment of Jan McGinity in the new position of head of elite performance recruitment.
Ged Glynn has become head of performance pathway and talent identification providing extra focus on scouting at all levels as well as continued responsibility for the club’s successful academy system.
Mike Ford will continue as part of the coaching team after arriving as a consultant last season, with responsibility for the team’s attack.
He joins Mark Bakewell, Boris Stankovich, Phil Blake and Brett Deacon in working with head coach Geordan Murphy.