Stadium Experience is pleased to introduce our voluntary Leadership Team below. Click to read more about each person. Find out more by contacting office@stadiumexperience.com
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Stadium Experience
Lytchett House
13 Freeland Park
Wareham Road
Poole, Dorset
BH16 6FA
Tel: 0345 226 5494
Email: office@stadiumexperience.com
© 2022 Stadium Experience | Website by ATTAIN
Collette Salmon
Collette has always had a background in Hospitality Sales and started her career in the hotel industry working for Mount Charlotte Thistle who had a port folio of 129 hotels at that time across UK, her hotel career took her to various sales roles within De Vere & Village hotels too.
In 2000 she moved over to be a Head of Non Matchday Sales at the JJB Stadium progressing to Sales Director (now known as the DW Stadium).
In 2010 she took a position with Liverpool FC as a Sales Manager for Meetings and Events and now sells across Match Day, Seasonal, Non Matchday and Concerts for Anfield.
David Timms
David has been at Chelsea Football Club for eleven years, progressing through three departments and five job roles to his current role as Senior Manager: Venue and Hospitality Development. David sits as Vice Chairman of Stadium Experience, on the leadership and transatlantic SME growth committees of BritishAmerican Business (the leading Transatlantic trade association between the UK and US) and as a committee member for The Mayfair Collective (a private client group of discerning advisors).
To date, a 14-year career within the sport, hospitality, luxury, private client, events, tourism, and corporate sectors has allowed David to gain experience in implementing and delivering business development, sales, client service and event logistic strategies for UK and global sporting events (including his current role at Chelsea Football Club, World Cups, European Championships, The English Football League and The Wimbledon Championships) as well as corporate and CSR events and programmes.
Sue France
Sue has been involved in Stadium Experience from its conception in 2002 and has more than 35 years’ experience in hospitality sales, marketing and revenue roles and has worked for 3 north-west football stadia – Bolton Wanderers, Manchester United and Wigan Athletic.
Due to the pandemic, Sue left the industry and now works for a marketing agency, ATTAIN. Sue’s passion is people… whether this is meeting new people or building on existing relationships, but more importantly, helping people and their businesses succeed. Her skill set lies in understanding clients’ needs and working with them to create a strategy that will not only meet but exceed their expectations.
Nav Daine
Nav is a Regional Manager for Levy, and is the voluntary Public Catering Chair for Stadium Experience. Currently overseeing retail operations at Chelsea FC, Kingsmeadow (Chelsea Women Stadium) and Brentford Community Stadium. Additionally, Nav is involved with the design and operational delivery of several new tech initiatives – including implementation of new QSR self-ordering unit kiosks and bespoke F&B pre-ordering applications, designed specifically for retail stadia and event operations.
Nav’s experience stretches across numerous nightclubs, late night entertainment venues and renowned stadiums, arenas and race courses: Including Arsenal, Wembley Stadium, The Oval, Goodwood and Ascot to name a few. Throughout his career Nav has evolved his role continuously, covering innovation, sustainability, CSR community projects and promoting equality and diversity whilst maintaining retail at the core. Nav is known to be dynamic and proficient retail catering specialist with extensive experience, always willing to support and guide new retail managers.
Nav is often and progressively engaged in test planning, pilots and preparing solutions to add value across the customer journey, evolving concepts, applying technology and enhancing service delivery to drive top line, whilst mitigating impact of rising costs.
Debbie Rigney
Debbie is the Marketing & PR Manager for Stadium Experience. She is the primary contact for the association, and is not linked to any particular club. Joining the team in 2013, Debbie has grown the association to include over 50 member venues across the UK. Her role is to run the association day-to-day, manage the marketing and PR of the organisation, and seek out new opportunities for football, rugby and cricket stadium venues, as well as organise the annual Stadium Events & Hospitality Awards.
Debbie brings 20 years marketing and PR experience to the team, which includes 10 years working for BAA at Southampton Airport. She obtained her BA(Hons) degree in Tourism Management at Bournemouth University, and went on to further study a Post-Graduate Diploma in Public Relations from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).
Marc Lee
Marc is currently the Sales Manager for Principality Stadium Experience (PSE) having joined the business in 2017. Formed in 2014 as a joint venture between the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) and Compass Group, Principality Stadium Experience (PSE) is the only official provider of match day hospitality, conference and events and the delivery and provision of food and beverage to all spectators at all events within the grounds of Principality Stadium.
PSE have an exceptional track record in delivering world class events and boast an unrivalled knowledge of the hospitality & public retail market within the UK. The team have successfully organised the logistics and catering for all events held at the stadium since opening in 1999. Including but not limited to; UEFA Champions League Final 2017, Rugby World Cup fixtures, Six Nations tournaments, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) shows, World Championship Boxing and major concerts, including a record-breaking 4 nights of back-to-back sold-out Ed Sheeran concerts.
Prior to his current role, Marc spent just under 6 years working for Manchester United in a Business Development role.
Aimee Richardson
Aimee is the Client Services Manager, UK & UAE for Provision Events. Prior to this she was fully accountable for the entire Sales & Marketing delivery of C&E business at Southampton Football Club. Aimee has a varied background working in hospitality having started her career in operations at The O2 Arena for Levy and Compass UK, moving across to Virgin Limited edition looking after Richard Branson’s Roof Gardens, then later working with Individual Restaurant Group based in central London. Later, Aimee joined Saracens RFC where she headed up the C&E business development division later moving into match day hospitality account management. Following her time with Saracens RFC, Aimee moved her attention to East London and joined the team at West Ham United FC, followed by Southampton FC.
Kelly Englefield
Kelly is the Head of Sales for Stadia at Sodexo, covering all Sodexo stadium venues across the UK including; Hampden Park, Newcastle United, Headingley Stadium, Wigan Athletic, Blackburn Rovers, Preston North End and the American Express Stadium Brighton to name a few.
Kelly started her hospitality career at 17 years old working as a matchday waitress at Barnsley Football club and continued to work through a variety of hospitality roles gaining on the job experience whilst learning.
Over the last 20 years she has worked alongside, supported, and led 18 Football, Rugby and Cricket grounds, covering a variety of departments including Operations, Sales, and Business Development.
Kelly joined Sodexo in 2018 as the Head of Business Development for Headingley Stadium in Leeds. In October 2023, she transitioned to a new role as Head of Sales for Stadia. As part of the UK Senior Sales Leadership team, her role and responsibilities include taking the lead drive to drive forward the proactive direction and activity across all stadia and racecourse venues in the UK.
Jenni Ford
After a successful retail career, in 2007 I strengthened my customer service skills and started my career in the hospitality industry, with Southwater Event Group cross selling events, meetings, and hotels.
In 2012 I joined DeVere Group and later Puma Hotels which saw me travel all over the UK promoting their portfolio.
Wanting to concentrate on one venue which had extensive experience in holding large events, I had the privilege of joining Coventry Building Society Arena in 2014 as Business Development Manager.
In 2015 I was promoted to Head of Sales and subsequently I have undertaken the role of Director of Sales & Marketing
