Aston Villa starts hunt for head of marketing

Aston Villa Football Club is looking for a head of marketing following the resignation of Kate Linnel.

Linnel, who leaves the club in October, has decided to quit Aston Villa without a job to go to because of family commitments and a desire to move further south. She has been with the club for three years.

Linnel says she will look for another job in sports marketing. Before joining Aston Villa, Linnel was head of marketing services at the Benetton Formula One team.

Her decision to leave comes at a time when Aston Villa is revamping its marketing and consumer services department. The club is to appoint Nicola Keye to the newly created position of consumer sales manager in August to work alongside the head of marketing.

Keye will lead a strategy to develop the club’s customer relationship management, including better profiling of Aston Villa supporters, using the club’s database. The position of commercial manager held by Abdul Rassid will not be affected by the reshuffle.

Linnel says: “The marketing strategy will be more consumercentric in future, leveraging our customer base to increase ticket and merchandising sales.”