Italian soccer giants AC Milan have hired Luke Baker from Manchester United as their new senior commercial director.
He joins the Serie A side after spending almost nine years leading global partnerships at Manchester United.
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Baker will take on a similar role at Milan, leading the club’s commercial operations.
He will be responsible for partnerships and sales and report directly to chief revenue officer (CRO) Maikel Oettle.
Baker’s arrival is the latest reshuffle within Milan’s commercial division.
In 2023, Oettle was promoted from sponsorship sales director to commercial director, before taking on the CRO role following the departure of Casper Stylsvig later that year.
Baker held multiple commercial roles at Manchester United, most recently as director of principal partnerships.
Before joining the English Premier League club, he worked at major tech companies such as Microsoft and Apple.
This year, Milan exceeded €100 million ($115.1 million) in sponsorship revenues for the first time, and recently announced a key renewal with shirt sponsor Emirates until 2031.
For the 2024-25 season, Milan posted record revenue of €495 million and the club’s third straight annual fiscal profit (€3 million).
Meanwhile, local rivals Inter Milan have announced a new digital partnership with Turkish media technology company Merzigo.
Under the agreement, Merzigo will digitally distribute historic games, magazine series, interviews, and clips from across the Inter men’s, women’s, and youth teams.
The company said it will use the partnership to “optimise content creation and unlock new distribution opportunities” for the Serie A club.
Merzigo claims to have over 6,000 managed channels in more than 30 languages and 13 billion monthly views.
Inter are currently on course to win their 21st Serie A title, holding a six-point lead over AC Milan at the top of the table with eight games to go.
