Why Chelsea Women's new chief executive makes sense
- Published
Chelsea Women have appointed a new chief executive with no football experience - but when you dig a bit deeper the move makes sense.
Aki Mandhar will leave her post as global sporting director and general manager of The Athletic - the sports website owned by The New York Times - to become the chief executive of Chelsea Women’s team.
The organisation has newly split to run separately from the men’s team and Mandhar will oversee the commercial development of the club.
Chelsea's owners, currently divided with Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali of Clearlake Capital looking to buy each other out, are aligned on the fact they feel the women’s team is poised to grow rapidly, and have slapped a $200,000,000 (£153,000,000) valuation on that part of the club.
They feel that by splitting the women’s team from the men’s team new commercial opportunities with sponsors and investors will arrive.
Part of attracting that finance will be selling the inspiring stories of the female athletes and coaches involved as the game more widely grows domestically in the UK and overseas.
Mandhar, well respected within the media industry, will have a feel for telling those stories, digital products and growing a business that is effectively a start-up.
