MUMBAI: International sports marketing agency Sportfive, owned by Lagard?re, has announced that Alain Lemarchand has nominated Shaila-Ann Rao as the new managing director of its international business unit.

Rao, who joined Sportfive International in March 2011 as COO, will replace the current MD, Vincent Tong Cuong, who will now lead Sportfive France as its MD.

The change in management, which will be with immediate effect, concludes a first phase in which Vincent has successfully re-positioned Sportfive International as a tenacious and competitive sports marketing agency. 
 
Rao, who was previously Deputy Director of Legal and Business Affairs at TF1 and a member of the TF1 Management Committee, will use the depth and strength of her sports media rights background to drive the international business towards development.

Rao is a trained lawyer who is qualified and has practised in both the UK and in France. In 1996 she joined French national commercial broadcaster TF1 where she spent 12 years negotiating and managing deals with leading international film studios and sports rights holders, working on all major sports competitions and matches broadcast by TF1, including the Fifa World Cups 2010/2014 and the Rugby World Cups 2007/2011.