Racecourse Media Group (RMG) has promoted its chief commercial officer Nick Mills to become CEO, replacing the outgoing Martin Stevenson.
Mills will officially step into the role on 4 November, after Stevenson confirmed his intention to step down earlier this year.
Stevenson, who has served as CEO since 2020, informed the RMG board in July to begin the process of finding his replacement.
At the time, RMG said it was anticipating Stevenson would depart the horseracing body by the end of 2024.
Newly promoted Mills has been with RMG for almost two decades, initially joining as sales and marketing director, having started his career with Coral in the late 1990s.
He was then named commercial director before moving up to chief commercial officer in 2020.
During his time heading up the commercial division, Mills has been responsible for RMG business aspects such as streaming, international, sales and marketing.
RMG said Mills was chosen as Stevenson’s successor after a “rigorous recruitment process”.
Mills said he was “honoured” to take on the CEO role as he explained that despite the troubles facing horseracing, he was confident for the future.
He said “I am honoured to be given the opportunity to succeed Martin as chief executive and to lead the brilliant team at Racecourse Media Group.
“While the racing industry undoubtedly faces some challenges ahead, I firmly believe that now is an incredibly exciting time for the business with more opportunity for innovation and growth across our platforms than ever before.
“To ensure our full potential is realised, it is important we continue to harness the passion and commitment not only within RMG, but also of the dedicated teams across all of our member racecourses who directly contribute to and benefit from our success.”
Conor Grant, RMG chair, added: “Nick has been a highly regarded member of the team for nearly 20 years and we are delighted to appoint him as chief executive.
“With his extensive expertise in sales, marketing, media rights and streaming, Nick is uniquely positioned to drive growth and optimise the value of our member racecourses’ media rights, while also embracing the need for innovation.”
On the departing Stevenson, Grant noted: “We are deeply thankful to Martin for the enormous contribution he has made to Racecourse Media Group over the last 17 years.
“His dedication as chief financial officer and more recently as chief executive has been instrumental in delivering record results and setting RMG on a path to continued innovation.”
Arnold Ash is EGR’s Executive Recruitment Partner. They support ambitious organisations to identify and attract industry leading executive talent. Find out more here.
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