Martin Franklin has been appointed chief operating officer of Les Mills global markets, with responsibility for leading teams in the UK, Russia, India, the Middle East and Africa.

His remit will also include responsibility for Les Mills customer experience function CX, which will see him represent the club customer voice in all internal projects and product strategies.

Franklin has worked for the brand since 2013, with his career in the fitness industry spanning over 20 years.

In further news, Wendy Coulson has been promoted to chief executive of Les Mills UK and Ireland. Coulson has worked in the leisure industry for 20 years and was previously employed at Lloyds Bank for 10 years. She worked for Warner Leisure Hotels before moving to Les Mills as customer experience director in 2015.

Coulson will focus on the UK, which is a key business for the brand.

“We want to provide more direction and support for our independent teams, while proactively driving faster growth in all our global markets, but particularly the exciting new territories of Russia, India, the Middle East and Africa,” said Keith Burnet, global chief executive of Les Mills.

“This will allow our UK team to focus solely on growing the home market, having done a great job incubating Russia, India, the Middle East and Africa over the last few years.”