Pac-10 hires its first marketing director

WALNUT CREEK, Calif., March 3 (UPI) -- The Pac-10 Conference has hired its first chief marketing officer at a time when the conference is exploring the idea of expansion.

Danette Leighton joins the conference from Maloof Sports and Entertainment where she ran marketing for the Sacramento Kings and business operations for the WNBA Sacramento Monarchs.

Her resume also includes sports-marketing duties with Sony and the executive director of the 1999 Women's Final Four held at Stanford.

"She has a wealth of marketing and business operations experience in both men's and women's professional and collegiate athletics, and those skills will be significant as we move forward with the transformation of the Pac-10 in the coming months and years," Commissioner Larry Scott said in a written statement Wednesday.

The West Coast conference has been looking at the possibility of adding Utah and Brigham Young to its roster and for new revenues as the current member schools wrestle with chronic tight budgets.

Leighton, a graduate of the University of Arizona, will begin her new job April 5 and will be in charge of all Pac-10 marketing and public relations.