Jaguar appoints Sporting Director

Jaguar Racing today announces a new Sporting Director with the appointment of John Hogan (59). In addition to his role as Sporting Director, John will also assume all marketing and acquisitions responsibilities in the role of Commercial Director. John joins the team with immediate effect.

Having spent the past ten months retired, albeit working as an advisor for Vodafone, John's last position was with Philip Morris Europe where he was Vice President of Marketing from 1990. Since that time, John was responsible for re-focusing Philip Morris's event marketing and sponsorship activities on Formula One, Rallying and Motorcycling. From 1998, John was given additional responsibilities that included the development and co-ordination of European Sales.

John's position at Jaguar Racing will be outward facing and will include working with commercial partners, media, FIA and Ford Motor Company. The day-to-day running of the company will remain with David Pitchforth (Managing Director) while all testing and racing responsibilities will remain with Mark Gillan (Head of Vehicle Performance).

"We are delighted to have someone of the calibre of John join the team," commented Tony Purnell, CEO, Premier Performance Division. "We have made this decision to improve focus and to streamline commercial operations with the object of providing an even better service to our stakeholders. John's arrival marks the completion of our management re-structuring programme. We now have in place all the required personnel at both engineering and commercial level and with that in mind, we have no intention to recruit any more senior management -- and that includes a Team Principal," added Purnell.

"John's credentials are second to none and with over thirty years of front line experience in marketing and sponsorship, we see John's arrival at Jaguar Racing as a major coup. He has been responsible for exploiting the presence of some of the biggest brands in world motorsport and in the process, helping to launch the careers of such greats at James Hunt, Niki Lauda and Ron Dennis. We set out to get the best man possible and in John, we landed someone who in many ways pioneered the disciplines that we see in motorsport sponsorship today. Put another way, he has an iconic status when it comes to the business of F1 marketing and sponsorship," added Purnell.

John Hogan, said: "It is good to be back in racing on a full time basis and I am looking forward to immediately getting started on the challenge ahead with Jaguar Racing. My role will be to help strengthen the commercial division of the business and to apply my experience to other areas including the team's relationship with the FIA, Ford Motor Company, Jaguar Cars and other key investors in our business. Having officially retired from full-time work ten months ago, the single biggest attraction towards this position was the Jaguar brand and the potential of its associated commercial partners in F1."

"The team has undertaken some impressive work over the past few months, particularly on the management re-structuring side and the company's commitment towards turnaround is very evident at all levels of the business. I sense some exciting times ahead for Jaguar Racing and my decision to accept the post was also driven by the very committed approach that Ford Motor Company is adopting towards Jaguar in Formula One."

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