Colorado Rapids has appointed Richard Clarke as Senior Director of Communications and Digital Media.

The Englishman, 45, arrives from Arsenal FC where he spent a highly-successful 13-year spell as Managing Editor for the Arsenal Media Group.

Clarke is the latest in a number of key off-field appointments over the winter, including Claudio López (Director of Soccer) and Pádraig Smith (Sporting Director). His role will be to lead the Rapids’ communication strategy and manage its digital properties.

Clarke led editorial development at Arsenal across all areas - digital, video/TV, social media and printed publications. Under his guidance, Arsenal.com became one of the world’s leading football club websites, picking up numerous awards. In addition, his team built a global digital fan-base of 42 million across all social media platforms.

An experienced journalist, Clarke worked for The Times and Daily Telegraph before joining Arsenal. However, his first job was replacing Richard Fleming, now Rapids’ Senior Director of Broadcasting and play-by-play announcer, on the Aldershot News, a provincial newspaper, back in 1994.

“We are delighted to bring a person of Richard’s caliber to Colorado,” Rapids President, Tim Hinchey, said. “He has built an excellent reputation during his time at Arsenal, who are one of the world's leading clubs in digital media, and we hope we can benefit from his experience.

"Over the offseason, we have brought in many new players but the likes of Claudio, Pádraig and now Richard really strengthen our Front Office too. It illustrates the support that ownership has given us and shows we’ll be a strong organization, on the pitch and off it, in 2015."

Clarke moves to Denver this week with his wife and two children. We would like to welcome them all to the Rapids family.

* You can find Richard on Twitter @RichAtTheRapids