After a tumultuous 18 months, organisations have had to find innovative solutions to rebuild momentum for sports.
This July we are thrilled to host SportsPro APAC, uniting the fragmented region to share, connect and create new business opportunities. Shining a light on the organisations who are providing innovative and progressive approaches to rebuild momentum in sports, transforming the way sports is being consumed in the region.
Head of Sports
Sanjog Gupta leads the Sports business for Star and Disney India which includes a portfolio of 17 channels. In this role, he is responsible for the business, product (programming & production), marketing, and strategy for the Sports network.
Sanjog has been pivotal in driving the Sports broadcasting space in India. Prior to his current role, he was the content head for sports where he shaped and delivered marquee national and international broadcasts watched in over 200 countries ranging from IPL to ICC Cricket World Cup. Sanjog also played a significant role in driving growth for home-grown Indian sports properties such as Pro Kabaddi League and Indian Super League. He pioneered the regionalization of sports broadcasts by delivering live feeds in seven languages and launching regional sports networks in Hindi-speaking markets, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka & Tamil Nadu. He has championed grassroots development in sports by launching properties such as KBD Juniors and partnering with the Sports & Youth Affairs Ministry to launch Khelo India, which seeks to drive youth participation in Sports. The delivery of interactive consumer experiences and deployment of live AR/VR on broadcast – both world firsts – along with the use of state-of-the-art production technology have been crucial milestones in his vision of putting Star Sports at the forefront of the global broadcasting space.
Having been with Star India for 10 years, Sanjog also led content development for Life OK – Star India’s GEC channel for two years, prior to his role in Sports. He has been in the broadcast industry for almost two decades and has donned content leadership roles across English & Hindi News, Hindi General Entertainment, and Sports.
He is also the Chairperson of the Sports & Youth Affairs Committee at FICCI. In this capacity, he has been influential in bringing the focus of corporate India to sports development and holistically driving a strong multi-sport ecosystem in the country.
Sanjog is a Graduate in Economics (Honours) from Shri Ram College of Commerce, University of Delhi.
Professional Footballer
In 2019 Arsenal FC graduate Nico Yennaris officially changed his nationality from British to Chinese, his name to Li Ke and his Club to Beijing Guoan FC. This move made him the first naturalised player to ever play and score in the Chinese Super League and the first player to represent China. Off the pitch he was 2019 China GQ New Athlete of the Year, Forbes 30under30 & Weibo Newcomer of the Year.
Marketing Director
Kim joined the Foxtel Group in 2019 after spending two seasons at Cricket Australia as Head of Big Bash Leagues (BBL), which included delivering the first ever standalone Women’s BBL final with a sold-out crowd. Prior to this, she spent 15 years with PepsiCo, most recently as Head of Sports Marketing based at their global HQ in New York, leading initiatives such as the Pepsi Superbowl Halftime Show. Kim was appointed Marketing Director of Kayo Sports in October 2020, leading brand management and go to market strategy for Australia’s leading sports streaming business.
President
Before becoming IPC President in September 2017, Andrew served the IPC in multiple roles, including Vice President (2013-2017), Governing Member (2009-2013), as well as Chairperson of the IPC Paralympic Games Committee from 2009-2013. Additionally, he was the President of the Americas Paralympic Committee from 2005-2009 after serving as its Secretary General from 2002-2005.
VP & Managing Director, India
Ajit Mohan, Vice President & Managing Director, Facebook India
As the Vice President and Managing Director, India at Facebook, Ajit Mohan spearheads the company’s India charter. Ajit and his leadership team are focused on the company’s efforts to enable Indians to connect with people, communities, and the things they care the most about.
Prior to Facebook, Ajit was the Chief Executive Officer at Hotstar. He launched and built Hotstar into India’s leading premium video streaming platform. Ajit spent five years at McKinsey & Company, first in New York in its media practice, where he worked with media companies in North America, Europe, and Latin America, and two years as a Fellow at the McKinsey Global Institute, where he co-authored India’s Urban Awakening, a 2010 report that outlined a new policy approach to India’s rapid urbanization.
Ajit has worked extensively in the social sector including initiatives in child nutrition in Bihar, anti-sex selection programs in New Delhi, public school reforms in Cincinnati in the United States, and in improving access to government welfare in New York for a program run by the Robin Hood Foundation.
He is a graduate of the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a BASc in Computer Engineering from NTU in Singapore.
Senior Partnerships Director
Kimberly Koh is the Senior Partnerships Director at World Table Tennis (WTT) and is responsible for securing and managing brand partnerships globally. This includes establishing WTT’s commercial brand partnership structure, and delivering a data and result-driven activation strategy for brands across all of WTT’s event and digital platforms.
She has 9 years of experience in the table tennis business within roles spanning media, marketing and sales, and was part of the core International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) team that led to the initial set up of WTT, applying a holistic understanding of the sport to its commercial strategy.
Chief Executive
Craig is recognized as one of Australia’s most innovative and forward thinking chief executives. His charismatic and passionate nature, together with his business acumen, has leveraged him to the forefront of sports administration and the leader behind Australia’s largest and most successful international sporting event.
Craig has been Tournament Director of the Australian Open since 2006 and was appointed CEO of Tennis Australia in 2013. He also serves as the Chair of the Coalition of Major Professional and Participation Sports (COMPPS). His relationship with the playing group and relentless focus on improvement has transformed the Australian Open into one of the players’ and Australia’s favorite events.
The Australian Open has continually broken attendance records since 2006 and attracted more than 814,000 people from around Melbourne, Victoria and across the globe in 2020 alone. The event delivers more than $377 million in economic benefit to the state each year and reaches a global audience of more than 900 million households.
Craig has led the introduction of successful initiatives to shift the trending decline in participation with products such as Hot Shots, adult social play, the rollout of digital platforms to increase court accessibility and affiliation reform. Also, under his leadership, Australia’s different coaching groups were unified into a single organisation and an additional $300 million leveraged for local facilities.
Prior to joining Tennis Australia, Craig was Director of Tennis at the University of Illinois, where he led the fastest tennis program turnaround in US collegiate history, breaking a 100 year-old record for most consecutive wins.
He twice earned the US National Coach of the Year award, coached several top ten professional players and captained the South African Davis Cup team. His achievements have further been recognized by being elected to the College Tennis Hall of Fame (2010) and Illinois Athletic Hall of Fame (2017).
SVP, APAC
Sunita Kaur is the Senior Vice President of APAC at Twitch. The first in the role, Sunita oversees all operations for content creators, media partners, agencies, advertisers, publishers, and developers in the region. Sunita comes to Twitch from Spotify where she was Managing Director of Southeast Asia and then VP Revenue in APAC over a six year period, expanding the service across Asia and leading launches in Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. Previously, Sunita held executive roles across Asia at Facebook, Microsoft, and Forbes.
"SportsPro Asia attracts the best speakers and creates effective content to match"
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"Unrivalled selection of topics and speakers; a lot of insights to help us better understand the Asian sports market"