Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium has made two new appointments to its senior management team.
Adam Ashton, the Consortium’s former vice-president of marketing, has been named president. He succeeds Keith Pelley, who headed the Consortium for more than two years before taking an executive position at CTV in April. Pelley was last week named president of Rogers Media.
Ashton, 38, will oversee day-to-day operations for the Consortium’s coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, with responsibility for all integrated sales, marketing, scheduling, production and digital initiatives.
He will also continue to foster the Consortium’s relationships with partners including the International Olympic Committee, London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) and the Canadian Olympic Committee, as well as internal partners and stakeholders.
Prior to joining the Consortium, Ashton spent 10 years at the sports specialty channel TSN, working his way up to vice-president, marketing. He was co-creator of the TSN Events division, and was also a key figure in the creation of NASCAR Canada–the racing organization’s first international operation.
Ashton described working on the Olympics as “addictive” and said he was excited about the opportunity to lead the Consortium.
“I’m just thrilled to be able to continue what we started in Vancouver with the team we have in place,” he said. “We had a lot of great learning from Vancouver that we’re going to be able to take forward to London, so it’s about getting another chance to adjust, make some tweaks and showcase the Games on a number of different platforms.”
The Consortium also announced Tuesday that its former VP, business development Dan Cimoroni has been named to the newly created position of senior VP, sales and marketing. Cimoroni, 41, will oversee all sales, marketing, partnerships and business development for the Consortium’s 2012 London Olympics effort.
Prior to joining the Consortium, Cimoroni was VP, sports and management for sports media company Insight Sports, which counts the specialty channels World Fishing Network and the NHL Network among its assets.
He also spent seven years at the sports marketing firm IMG, holding a number of roles including VP of IMG Golf.
“Dan brings something to the sports media business that I think we’ve been lacking for a long time, and that’s great entrepreneurial vision,” said Ashton. “He just looks at things differently and adds a different dimension to the team. His perspective is really welcomed.”
Cimoroni said he expects the Consortium’s sales team to benefit from a longer lead-time for the London Olympics, but noted that preliminary discussions with marketing partners will begin as early as next month.
“We have the luxury now of having a more cooperative style of conversation,” he said.
“There’s no doubt that a domestic Games provides an incredible opportunity, but I think we really did gain the confidence not just of Canadians but of those advertiser partners. As far as a pure media exercise we think [the London Olympics] is going to be quite exceptional, and the demand is going to be very strong.”
