The Club has appointed Pietro Palladino as its new Head of Commercial and promoted Sophie Harding as Director of Operations.
Having most recently worked for 54, a sports marketing company that specialises in Golf, Pietro worked in the commercial department at AFC Wimbledon for nearly a decade. He joins a distinguished GFC Commercial department that has been recognized as one of League Two's commercial powerhouses over the last two seasons.
Pietro did his Football scholarship with Wycombe Wanderers where, rumour has it, he cleaned the boots of First-Team Manager Gareth Ainsworth! He also worked closely with current Technical Director Richard Dobson and Recruiting Coordinator David Wates while at Wycombe. Thereafter he studied Sport Science at St Mary's University.
"I'm really happy to have joined the club and to be back in Football," said Pietro. "I have some close friends who are Gills fans, and I was already acquainted with a few people here, so I knew it was a great club to be part of. With the direction GFC is heading under Brad and Shannon, it's an exciting time. I'm looking forward to playing my part and helping shape the club's future."
Long-time Gillingham staff member Sophie Harding, who most recently served as GFC's Head of Revenue, has assumed the role of Director of Operations. Sophie started her Football career at Crawley Town. Having worked in the industry for more than 13 years, four of which have been at Gillingham FC, Sophie comes to the role with a wide range of expertise in Football Operations. Most recently, as GFC's Head of Revenue, Sophie has overseen significant growth in revenue streams across various areas, most notably in retail and conference and events, where her introduction of new sales processes have led to the club being one of the highest performing commercial teams in League Two for the past two seasons.
Sophie is currently studying BA (Hons) in Business Management.
Speaking about her new role, Sophie said: "I am really excited to be taking on this new opportunity as Director of Operations. We have a fantastic team of people here who work extremely hard and I am looking forward to working alongside them."
Shannon Galinson shared: "Brad and I had realized that it's a pivotal time in terms of the club's growth and that our Executive Team needs the bandwidth to support those efforts. We prefer to promote from within and Sophie was our clear choice. We have the utmost confidence that she will expertly support her staff in bringing the club's operations to the next level."
For any commercial enquiries, or if you are interested in becoming a partner of the club, please contact Pietro on ppalladino@gillinghamfc.com
