Welsh Rugby Union creates head of marketing as part of restructure

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) is searching for a marketing chief who will have responsibility for the body and the Millennium Stadium.

The newly appointed group commercial marketing director will report to WRU group chief executive David Moffett. A former chief executive of the New Zealand Rugby Union, the Australian Rugby League and Sport England, Moffett started his job at the beginning of this month.

The remit of the new marketing position will include negotiating sponsorship deals, developing licensing, merchandising and hospitality. The WRU is also searching for chief executives to head the WRU and the Millennium Stadium. All three roles have come about as a result of a vote on modernisation by the WRU’s 239 clubs in May.

Moffett says: “The three people we bring in to fill these roles will become the hands-on, day-to-day runners of the joint business of the WRU Group, the game as a whole and the Millennium Stadium.”

This year, the WRU has clinched a raft of sponsorship deals. Last month, Lloyds TSB agreed to sponsor the Welsh national league divisions one to seven in a three-year deal after the bank ended its Six Nations Championship sponsorship. Earlier in the year, the WRU secured Specsavers to sponsor its referees (MW August 29).