PRESS RELEASES

Kansas City Chiefs Name Lara Krug Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer

In collaboration with TurnkeyZRG, the Kansas City Chiefs announced the hiring of Lara Krug as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. She joins the Chiefs after three years as Vice President of U.S. Marketing for Stella Artois, part of Anheuser-Busch InBev, and will oversee all club marketing functions, including brand marketing, community outreach, digital, social and website operations, event entertainment and content production.

The newly created Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer position is focused on building a visionary platform to grow the team’s global fanbase for decades to come, working proactively across the organization to identify opportunities to help internal and external stakeholders achieve key growth objectives. Short- and long-term strategies will focus on global engagement, brand extensions and loyalty, digital following and audience scale across all platforms.

“We are thrilled to welcome Lara to Chiefs Kingdom as part of our executive team and as the first Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer in club history,” Chiefs President Mark Donovan said. “Her track record of success in brand marketing across multiple industries gives us confidence that her voice and expertise will be extremely beneficial for our organization. This is an incredibly exciting time in franchise history, and Lara is going to help us continue to build the Chiefs brand locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.”

“I am extremely honored and excited to become part of such an amazing organization with a rich history, tremendous success on the field and deep roots in the community,” Krug said. “To have the chance to grow and amplify the brand that the Hunt family has built over the last 60-plus years to more passionate fans throughout Kansas City, the U.S. and around the world, is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity. While I didn’t grow up in Kansas City, I experienced my first game at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium 18 years ago with my now husband and have become a fan for life.”

Prior to joining the Chiefs, Krug spent more than seven years in multiple marketing roles with Anheuser-Busch InBev, eventually taking over as Vice President of U.S. Marketing for Stella Artois for three years (2018-21). Prior to leading the national marketing efforts for Stella Artois, she served as the Vice President of U.S. Marketing for Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Regional Brands, including Estrella Jalisco, Landshark, Presidente, Beck’s and Kirin. Those roles saw her develop and lead experiential platforms and campaigns around Super Bowl LIV (2020) and the FIFA World Cup (2018). She also held positions as the Director of Global Experiential Marketing (2015-17) and Director of Global Digital and Media Operations at Anheuser-Busch InBev (2014-15).

Prior to joining A-B InBev, Krug spent three years with L’Oreal USA, where she finished her time as Associate Vice President of Global Digital Marketing, overseeing the creation of digital and social content toolkits, CRM and data capture strategy. Prior to L’Oreal, Krug was the manager of Online Marketing for Avon Inc. and Avon.com and was a media strategist for multiple national clients at PHD Media.

She graduated from Miami University with a bachelor’s degree in mass communication and marketing in 2007. She resides in Fairway, Kansas, with her husband, Colin; daughter, Blake; and son, Carter.

ABOUT TURNKEYZRG

Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model. For more information about TurnkeyZRG, visit www.turnkeyzrg.com.