Kim Brink Departs NASCAR for COO Role at Global Team Ford
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (June 11, 2015) – NASCAR today announced that Senior Vice President Jill Gregory, who currently oversees the company’s Industry Services department, will also assume leadership of NASCAR Marketing effective immediately. Gregory replaces Kim Brink who was named Chief Operating Officer of Global Team Ford, the WPP-owned group of agencies dedicated to Ford, earlier today.
In her current role, Gregory oversees a group that includes Driver, Team and Event Marketing Services, as well as Industry Operations. She has led NASCAR’s Driver Star Power initiative and spearheaded industry integration on the rollout of numerous marketing initiatives, including the new NASCAR Sprint Cup Chase format in 2014. With her added responsibilities, she will now lead Brand Marketing, Marketing and Media Research, and NASCAR Creative Design. She also serves as a member of the board of directors for The NASCAR Foundation. Gregory will report to NASCAR Chief Marketing Officer, Steve Phelps on Marketing and continue to report to NASCAR Chief Racing Development Officer, Steve O’Donnell on Industry Services.
“Jill is an extraordinary leader with world-class marketing experience from the client, agency and sports property perspective who also has deep relationships across NASCAR and keen understanding of the needs of all our stakeholders,” said Phelps. “Her combined skills, experience and ability to integrate make her a perfect choice to lead this critical discipline into the future. We can’t thank Kim enough for what she has built over the last four years and her new opportunity certainly reflects her immeasurable contributions at NASCAR.”
Gregory joined NASCAR in 2007 after serving as Senior Vice President of Motorsports Marketing at Bank of America and prior to that served as Director of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Marketing at Sprint NEXTEL. Earlier in her career she worked in-house at Texaco, as well as top sports marketing agencies, GMR and Wunderman. She was among the inaugural class of “Game Changers: Women in Sports Business” by SportsBusiness Journal and SportsBusiness Daily and the California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo graduate stays active in the community, currently serving as corporate chair for LLS Light the Night Walk in Charlotte.
“NASCAR is a globally recognized brand and this is an important moment in our history so I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to lead marketing,” said Gregory. “We have many strong assets in the sport right now and I look forward to integrating Industry Services and Marketing as we work across the industry to build our brand and the profile of our drivers, tracks and events to grow NASCAR.”
Brink has led all marketing initiatives at NASCAR since 2011, spearheading award-winning advertising creative, the launch of NASCAR’s current Hispanic outreach efforts, as well as the development of NASCAR’s acclaimed youth marketing platform, Acceleration Nation. She also led NASCAR’s Agency of Record review that resulted in the selection of class-leading Ogilvy and Mather.
Brink joined NASCAR after a long tenure at General Motors in Detroit where she led global advertising and sales promotions campaigns for Chevrolet and Cadillac. As COO at Global Team Ford, Brink will report to Team Detroit CEO, Satish Korde, and play a lead role driving marketing support for Ford Motor Company worldwide.
“My experience at NASCAR has been outstanding and I look forward to staying connected to the sport through its relationship with Ford,” said Brink. “The sport is headed in the right direction and I’m confident the team and marketing foundation that has been built positions Jill and the team for great success going forward. She is a talented leader with strong experience and relationships that will serve the sport very well.”
About NASCAR
The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. (NASCAR) is the sanctioning body for the No. 1 form of motorsports in the United States. NASCAR consists of three national series (the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series™, NASCAR XFINITY Series™, and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series™), four regional series, one local grassroots series and three international series. The International Motor Sports Association™ (IMSA®) governs the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship™, the premier U.S. sports car series. Based in Daytona Beach, Fla., with offices in eight cities across North America, NASCAR sanctions more than 1,200 races in more than 30 U.S. states, Canada, Mexico and Europe. For more information visit http://www.NASCAR.com and http://www.IMSA.com, and follow NASCAR at www.Facebook.com/NASCAR and Twitter: @NASCAR.
