Chelsea's chief marketing officer leaves club after 15 months in role

Chief marketing officer Claire Cronin has become the latest senior executive to leave Chelsea after 15 months at the club.

Cronin joined Chelsea from McLaren Racing in August 2023 to oversee the brand, creative, growth marketing and fan engagement teams at Stamford Bridge, having previously worked at Barclays and Virgin Atlantic.

News of her departure has been communicated internally to club staff and comes less than a month after chief executive Chris Jurasek announced he was stepping down, as Chelsea gave chief operating officer Jason Gannon the additional title of president and leadership of a new-look senior management team.

Filling out the management team led by Gannon are chief revenue officer Casper Stylsvig, chief legal and corporate affairs officer James Bonington and chief strategy officer and head of business operations James Murray. Todd Kline and Phil Lynch will also take up senior business roles when they formally join Chelsea from Tottenham and Manchester United respectively.

In an interview with The Drum in July, Cronin spoke very positively about the backing of Jurasek enabling her to grow the staff size and budget of Chelsea’s marketing operation. “I’m super-positive, but that’s because I’ve got a CEO and a CFO who really believe in the power of marketing,” she said. “I probably feel more positive, more confident, more ambitious, because of the infrastructure that I’ve come into.”

Cronin’s influence was particularly visible in the marketing that surrounded the launch of Chelsea’s home kit for the 2024-25 season. She enlisted the services of Uncommon Creative Studio to help formulate the “We burn blue” campaign that rebranded the club as “CFC LDN”, in an attempt to position it as the capital’s definitive football club.

“This is the fans’ energy,” Cronin said as part of the kit launch. “The players’ energy. The city’s energy. We Burn Blue. Our new home shirt embodies the passion, drive, and determination that runs through the veins of everyone associated with the club. It is a representation of our history, our present, and our future. We couldn’t have chosen a better partner in Uncommon to help us bring this important moment to bear.”

Two months into the season, Chelsea are yet to find a company prepared to pay what they are looking for to position their brand logo on the front of that shirt, with a two-year absence from the Champions League a key factor in the club’s struggle to find a suitable sponsor.

(GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)

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Liam is a Staff Writer for The Athletic, covering Chelsea. He previously worked for Goal covering the Premier League before becoming the Chelsea correspondent for ESPN in 2015, witnessing the unravelling of Jose Mourinho, the rise and fall of Antonio Conte, the brilliance of Eden Hazard and the madness of Diego Costa. He has also contributed to The Independent and ITV Sport. Follow Liam on Twitter @liam_twomey