Peter Kenyon, the man credited with helping turn both Manchester United and Chelsea Football Club into global sports brands, will join CAA as the head of the entertainment giant’s international sports efforts.

Image via TimesUK, Story via Sportbusinessjournal

“The move puts Kenyon, one of the most influential executives in soccer worldwide, at the helm as CAA looks to expand its sports business internationally. He will be responsible for building the agency’s international business in an array of areas, including athlete and property representation, corporate consulting and media rights.

Kenyon will be one of CAA Sports’ top executives and a member of the leadership team alongside Howard Nuchow and Michael Levine. He becomes the latest in a string of top sports executives to join the agency over the last three years and will be critical to the agency’s effort to compete worldwide with global sports agencies such as IMG, Sportfive and others.

“We’ve had some initial success [overseas], but we quickly realized that if we’re going to have real impactful success we would need a great leader with a terrific, strategic business development mind,” said Nuchow, CAA Sports co-head. “Pete is a builder of businesses. This will not be new to him.”

Kenyon added, “[CAA has] begun to build a major force in sports over the last three years, and that’s what we want to replicate. CAA is a great brand and a fantastic platform to take on the world.”

Kenyon begins his new job today and will work out of CAA’s London office.”