-Written by Zac Jackson
The Browns announced several front office moves on Thursday including the hiring of Catherine Raiche as assistant general manager and vice president of football operations, making her the highest ranking female executive in the NFL.
Raiche, who was named to The Athletic's NFL 40 under 40 last year, will help manage the day-to-day operations of the team and contribute to all roster decisions.
Prior to joining Browns, she oversaw all areas of football ops and player personnel for the Philadelphia Eagles.
Raiche first started working in football in 2015, as an intern with the Montreal Alouettes. In 2017, she was promoted to assistant GM and was the first and only female assistant GM in the CFL at the time. She’s also spent time with the Toronto Argonauts and the XFL's Tampa Bay Vipers.
The Browns announced six other new hires: Hajriz Aliu as a scouting assistant, Chris Buford as a national scout, Ryan Conway as a scouting assistant, Shawn Heinlen as southwest area scout, Jimmy Raye as senior executive advisor to the GM and Cyrus Wolford as a scouting assistant.
"We're excited to welcome the newest members of our football operations staff and looking forward to others within our organization receiving expanded roles and additional responsibility," Browns GM Andrew Berry said in a news release. "We have a number of talented people from various backgrounds that will maximize our efforts to create sustained success. We look forward to these staffing changes reinforcing the diverse, multi-disciplinary and collaborative work environment we strive to create."