Lagardere : Laurent Platini and Thomas Lavenant appointed as Head of Business Development France and Director France Event Division respectively

Laurent Platini and Thomas Lavenant appointed as Head of Business Development France and Director France Event Division respectively

Lagardère Sports, a company of Lagardère Sports and Entertainment, today announced the appointment of Laurent Platini and Thomas Lavenant for the positions of Business Development Director and Events Division Director of Lagardère Sports in France respectively. Both report to Laurent Moretti, France Managing Director of Lagardère Sports.

The former Managing Director of the sporting goods retailer Burrda Sport, Laurent Platini takes lead of the Lagardère Sports' business development in France, included the recently integrated merchandising and licensing activity. Laurent Platini has devoted most of his career to professional sport. In 2005 he worked at Paris Saint-Germain Football Club as a legal officer, and then went on to join the sports division of the Lagardère Group as VP Legal Affairs in 2009. In 2011, Laurent Platini was appointed as Managing Director of Burrda Sport, the Qatar Sports Investment owned company. Now appointed by Lagardère Sports, Laurent Platini joins the company to build the outlines of a bold business development strategy both on a national and international level, in order to contribute to the Lagardère Sports' economic growth.

Supporting the events division dynamic and capitalising on the success of UEFA Euro 2016 Fan Zone Tour Eiffel, Laurent Moretti has appointed Thomas Lavenant to lead and expand Lagardère Sports' events activities at an international level. With 18 years of experience in sports, Thomas Lavenant has organised and delivered more than 30 events, in 28 countries on five continents including Olympic Games, FIFA World Cups, UEFA Euros, the ICC Cricket World Cup, Rugby European Cups and ATP major tournaments. Having successfully led the UEFA Euro 2016 Fan Zone Tour Eiffel project, he joined Lagardère Sports on the January 2 2017.

For Laurent Moretti, France Managing Director of Lagardère Sports said: « Since 2014, Lagardère Sports has showed a consistent growth and development. As a response to an increase in activities in 2016, I'm proud to welcome Laurent and Thomas to help develop our strategy and to face the 2017 challenges. Their experience and their vast knowledge of the sports business, is a major asset for Lagardère Sports and its subsidiaries. We are opening our activities to a growing numbers of clients, which is why its essential to bring both nationally and internationally known experts to better respond to clients and partner's needs. We draw our strength from the complementarity of our services and offers, and these two nominations are in line with sense. We wish them both,, all the luck and success in their roles.'