Mott MacDonald has appointed Andy Preece as a director in its sports business. He will be responsible for growing the consultancy’s sports advisory business globally in areas such as planning for venues and major sporting events.

Preece has nearly 30 years’ experience in the sports industry, with particular expertise in market and financial feasibility studies for global sport venues and major events. He has worked at a senior level as a board director, management consultant, project manager and educator, covering areas such as sport facility development and management, sport tourism, high performance sport, sport for international development and sports education. In the major events sector, Preece has helped cities, local organising committees and international federations evaluate, bid, plan for and deliver both multi and single sport events.

He joins Mott MacDonald from AECOM, where he spent three years as a sport director in their economics team working on projects in Europe, Africa, Asia-Pacific and the Caribbean. Earlier in his career, Preece was on the board of PMP for 13 years, who were at the time one of the UK’s leading sport and event consultancies. During this period he worked with major clients including the Dutch National Olympic Committee, World Rugby, FIFA, UK National Audit Office, London Development Agency, UK Sport, and the Madrid 2016 Olympic bid team.

In addition to his consultancy activities, Preece is a regular conference presenter on sports-related issues, a founder member of the Department for International Trade Sports Economy Sector Advisory Group and a visiting lecturer in Sport Management and Policy at Loughborough University.

James Middling, Mott MacDonald’s global head of sport and events, said: “We are delighted to welcome Andy to our sport and events team. He brings a wealth of experience across the sports sector, while his specialist skills in sports economics will be a great fit into our revenue based design service, helping clubs and venue owners to be more successful.”