Interbike releases Rich Kelly

Rich Kelly had worked for Interbike in a marketing role for six and a half years. Last year a management reshuffle saw him promoted to become Interbike’s brand and communications director.

Kelly told BikeBiz: "I truly enjoyed working on behalf of Interbike and am proud of all the innovations I helped bring about in that time."

One of these innovations was being the social media voice for Interbike, on blogs, podcasts and on Twitter. Kelly wrote the blog postings on InterbikeTimes.com and contributed to the Spokesmen industry podcast. He was also in charge of Interbike’s Twitter account.

He now has resurrected a dormant Twitter account and can be found at @Rich_Kelly

In January 2011 a statement from Interbike said Kelly’s newly created role would "allow him to enhance Interbike’s connection and place in the industry through a variety of social media outreach, extensive travel to meet with retailers, manufacturers and distributors, and developing new partnerships and innovative extensions of the show."

Interbike has not yet released an official statement on the reasons for releasing Kelly.

However, it has announced there will be a replacement, and this is Justin Gottlieb, former sales manager at American Bicycle Group.

Interbike’s managing director Pat Hus, formerly with American Bicycle Group, used to work with Gottlieb.

Interbike is owned by Nielsen Expositions, a division of The Nielsen Company, the global information and market measurement company.