More Than Half Way To Its Sponsorship Goal, Rio 2016 Fires Sponsorship Head

After helping secure $700 million in sponsorship, most recently through deals with Brazilian bank Bradesco and communications giant Embratel, chief commercial and marketing officer, Maggie Sanchez, has been fired as a result of an "incompatibility of philosophies" between her team and the Rio 2016 organizing committee.

"Maggie Sanchez is no longer Rio 2016 commercial and marketing director due to an incompatibility of philosophies between her and the rest of the team," Rio 2016's communications director Carlos Villanova told insidethegames.biz. "It was quite simply a case that her strategies differed from the rest of the team and we were unable to reach a compromise or find a solution.

Rio 2016 had previously said its goal was to limit local sponsorships to $1.2 billion to avoid having too many sponsors and with five years to go was $500 million short of that goal.

Sanchez, who joined Rio 2016 in December of 2010, previously held senior level marketing roles at Vodafone and Microsoft. Rio 2016 general director Leonardo Gryner will take over Sanchez' responsibilities until a full-time replacement can be found.

#newstag