Speakers

As CEO of Endeavor China, Sum oversees business across all divisions, including IMG Media and Events, IMG Licensing, WME & IMG agency business, 160over90, and the newly acquired digital agency Mailman. To benefit Endeavor as a group, he also leads collaborations with other Endeavor subsidiaries, including UFC, Neulion, IMG Academy, etc. Sum’s expertise helps Endeavor China level up its presence in both sports and entertainment, and also penetrate into new territories including eSports and mobile gaming.His leadership is to grow and scale the robust offerings Endeavor China has built across all business lines, and government relations in China and APAC.

Katie Sadleir is the new Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Chief Executive Officer, taking up the position in November 2021. She joined the CGF from World Rugby, where she was General Manager of Women’s Rugby and responsible for spearheading the global development of the women’s game.

A Commonwealth Games medallist and an Olympian, Katie has a wealth of experience as both an athlete and sports administrator. Born in Scotland and raised in Canada, Katie made New Zealand her home and represented her adopted country at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic Games in synchronised swimming, before competing at the Edinburgh 1986 Commonwealth Games two years later where she won the bronze medal in the women’s solo. She served as the Assistant Chef de Mission New Zealand at the Victoria 1994 Commonwealth Games and has attended six editions of the multi-sport competition in various capacities. Katie led the establishment of the New Zealand Academy of Sport network in the late 1990s before becoming General Manager of Sport and Recreation New Zealand (now Sport New Zealand) from 2000-2006. She has held directorships with both Sport New Zealand and High-Performance Sport New Zealand while she has been a director with the International Association of Elite Sport Training Centres, a board member of the New Zealand Swimming Federation and a member of the New Zealand Olympic Committee (NZOC) Athletes’ Commission.

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.

SailGP, the purpose-driven, global racing league appointed Erica Kerner as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer in 2021. Kerner will lead the marketing and communications functions across the global business. A key focus will be growing SailGP’s already enviable global audience and continue to build on its strong relationships with global distribution and broadcast partners as the league moves from Season 2 to 3, starting May 2022.

Robert Klein joined Bundesliga International in May 2017 as Chief Commercial Officer. In January 2018, he took over the role as Chief Executive Officer, driving the international position of the Bundesliga as one of the most innovative and exciting football leagues globally.

Before his career at Bundesliga International, Robert was leading the Sports Rights department at Red Bull Media House, responsible for growing the company’s global sports portfolio. Previous to Red Bull Media House, Robert worked as Executive Director for International Sports Multimedia (ISM), UEFA New Media and NBA Europe Events. He holds a Masters’ Degree in Leisure Policy and Planning from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh.

Malaysia Football League aims to privatise the Malaysian professional football leagues with efforts in transforming Malaysian football, one of which is positive & sustainable commercial growth. Winnie’s responsibilities are with commercialising all MFL assets, strategise and oversee all commercial & marketing activities and provide local guidance and senior support for the team, including Partnership, Client Servicing, Media Rights, Broadcast, Events & Creative.

Manabu Yamada is Executive Vice President of DAZN Japan, leading all business in the Japan market. Manabu has extensive experience in sports and digital business throughout his career, in which his earlier major achievements include the launch of the first official MLB website in Japan, and involvement in the digital strategy for many sports such as the NFL and the J.League. His more recent career highlights include the broadcasting of major sports at media such as J SPORTS, and led Sports Navi, the biggest digital sporting media in Japan, through business developments and partnerships with various sports leagues and entities. Manabu was appointed to the role of President and Representative Director for Sports Navi K.K. in 2018 where he exhibited excellent leadership, and joined DAZN in September 2021 as EVP, as the first Japanese business leader for DAZN Japan.

As Vice President, Marketing & Communications, NBA Asia, Sheila Rasu is responsible for the overall marketing, communications and social responsibility efforts for the NBA across Asia-Pacific. Rasu has more than 20 years of experience in public relations and marketing. Before joining NBA Asia in 2011, Rasu served as SVP of Fleishman-Hillard in Singapore, where she oversaw its consumer and healthcare practice for Southeast Asia and spearheaded various large-scale regional campaigns. Prior to that, Rasu held positions with Fulford PR and Mission Hills Group.

Leading Astro’s OTT service ‘sooka’ covering live sports, entertainment and originals. Managing dedicated product, ops, content, marketing, commercial and data teams.

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.

Rachael Neumann is a co-founder and partner of Flying Fox Ventures, an early-stage investment firm supporting Australian and New Zealand founders with global ambition. Flying Fox has over 30 companies in its portfolio and has enabled hundreds of folks to start or turbocharge their investment journeys. Rachael plays across many parts of the startup ecosystem, as a Partner at Startmate, and previously as Head of Startups in Australia & New Zealand for Amazon Web Services and prior to that, Managing Director of Eventbrite ANZ. Rachael is passionate about helping companies scale and increase their impact through differentiated customer experiences and new product development.

Danny Townsend was one of the co-founders of sports and entertainment intelligence and measurement agency, Repucom International which was acquired by global research and data company, Nielsen Holdings in 2016. During his time at Repucom and more recently as Global Managing Director of Nielsen Sport, Danny has advised major brands and sporting bodies such as PepsiCo, Emirates Airline, Mastercard, Redbull, the NBA, the NFL, English Premier League and many professional sports franchises on how to maximise returns on sports marketing initiatives. In 2017, Danny returned to Australia to take up the role of Chief Executive Officer at Sydney FC where he has overseen significant growth in the Club’s corporate partnership base and the evolution of a number of strategic projects. More recently, as a result of the Australian Professional (Football) Leagues unbundling from Football Australia, Danny was appointed as Managing Director of the newly formed entity tasked with delivering a broadcast deal and digital first strategy which revitalises the A-League and W-League.

Alex leads the small and growing team at KAWO where their mission is to help global brands to be loved on social media in China. 4 years ago he co-founded KAWO and for the first 18 months lead the design and wrote all the front-end code alongside Brian Van Damme. Now the team has grown he acts as product manager and evangelist for KAWO driving the growth of the company.

A results-oriented leader, with over 20 years experience in Digital, National Broadcast and International Cable TV in Australia and Europe. Highly regarded as a creative problem solver who consistently implements innovative solutions to exceed business goals. A firm advocate of translating key audience insights into creative solutions for commercial partners that adds value and benefits both brands.

Mustafa Ghouse is the CEO of JSW Sports. Since its inception in 2012 as a programme to support Indian Olympic athletes, the Sports division of the JSW Group has owned and operated teams in the Indian Premier League, Pro-Kabaddi League and Indian Super League, where Mustafa holds several different managerial positions. The JSW Group has also led the establishment of the Inspire Institute of Sport, India’s first high-performance training centre for future Olympians, in Bellary, Karnataka.

Matt Pound started with the ITTF back in 2013 as the Promotions Manager, and has since been promoted to Head of Media, and subsequently to the Marketing Director position and now Managing Director of ITTF’s new commercial entity World Table Tennis. Since taking ITTF’s commercial rights back in house in 2017, Pound and his team have doubled commercial revenue and created a new and innovative business model to run table tennis’s commercial rights from 2021.

SPOTV, the new pan-regional, Asia-Pacific sports broadcaster, appointed Rubin Zhong as chief content strategy officer in 2021. Zhong joins SPOTV from SportBusiness, where he was a vice president in the consulting division in Asia.

A goal-driven individual who is passionate about self improvement. Patient and calm under pressure, with keen ability to multi-task and adapt to different situations. A dynamic and energetic team player with high willingness to learn and to contribute. She is a strong believer of brands and how telling a good story makes a difference to consumers’ preference.

Guy has over 20 years experience working across technology, data and consultancy roles within the global sports business industry. Currently managing WSC Sports business across Asia Pacific, he has overseen the growth of WSC’s AI powered video highlights automation technology to partner with major sporting properties and media companies across the region.

Chihiro Saito leads the league’s international strategy and operations, especially focusing on the Asia region. Since 2020, B.LEAGUE has introduced Asian Players Quota for Asian players to play in Japan and is leveraging this Asian talent to increase its presence in the Asian market by making the most of technology.

Amy Prosser is a Solutions Architect for Video and OTT at Optus Sport. Coming from a background implementing streaming solutions within major Broadcast, Sport and Government organisations across APAC, the UK and Europe, Amy moved to Optus Sport in 2021 to focus on taking Sports streaming to the next level. Optus Sport are one of the leading sports streaming platforms in Australia and are also actively working on changing the narrative around Women’s football. The Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 and all matches are available exclusively on Optus Sport so it’s an exciting time to be a part of the ride. Amy thrives when pushing ahead with the latest tech whilst also representing a change for good in the diversity space.

Palomba was born in Turin on 6 December 1975. He graduated in Political Sciences before obtaining a Masters in Business Administration and Information Communication Technology.

He has extensive experience in New Media (e-commerce, web and social networks), gained through a number of high level positions in multinational companies: Web and E-commerce for Ferrari Auto Spa, Senior Account Manager for Google Italia and Content & Marketing Manager (Corriere della Sera.it) for RCS Digital.

He joined Juventus in 2011, where he held the position of Co-Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Marketing and Digital until October 2018, when he became Managing Director of the Hong Kong branch and Head of APAC Project, with the aim of strengthening business relationships in Asia.

Kevin Chang serves as SVP, APAC at UFC®, the world’s leading mixed martial arts organization. He is responsible for UFC’s APAC strategy, operations, and content distribution. Chang first joined the global brand in January 2011 – June 2013, returning in February 2015. He previously served as the organization’s Vice President of Media in Asia responsible for establishing the brand’s early content distribution and marketing partnerships in the region, as well as setting up the first Asia office in Beijing. Under Chang’s leadership, UFC has aggressively expanded across Asia and delivered live events in Macau, Saitama, Seoul, Manila, and most recently to Singapore with 2 more events planned for 2017. Prior to joining UFC, Chang began his career in the sports industry at the National Football League, where he served as the Director of International Media. A native of Honolulu, HI, Chang holds a Bachelor of Arts from Pomona College and a China-focused MBA from the University of Hawaii, East-West Center for Asian Studies.

Sarah Chambers is the Operations Manager for Optus Sport Production and has been onboard since its inception in 2016, after previously working at Fox Sports Australia in the News Operations team. Using her Broadcast experience, Sarah has been integral in designing numerous workflows & processes to ensure Optus Sport is providing its viewers with the best Football experience. Optus Sport are one of the leading sports streaming platforms in Australia and are also actively working on changing the narrative around Women’s football. The Women’s World Cup takes place in Australia and New Zealand in 2023 and all matches are available exclusively on Optus Sport. Sarah loves to jump into a challenge & help find a solution that works best for all stakeholders.

Elliot is responsible for the commercial growth and strategy for Grabyo business across all key and emerging markets.

With over two decades experience in the sports media and technology industry, Elliot was an early hire at Getty Images in Singapore before joining Reuters Media to manage content distribution across Asia. After spending time at Nokia Asia-Pacific Elliot then joined PERFORM Group (now DAZN Group) as Managing Director – Emerging Markets Asia driving growth across rights, video distribution and digital advertising. Elliot joined Discovery as Head of Sport in 2016 before deciding to join Grabyo in 2017.

Paul has worked in the Broadcasting Industry since 1987, starting with the (then) Department of Transport and Communications in the Broadcasting Services Division, and going on to work as an engineer in Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Information Media, Sony Australia, Seven Network, Nine Network, Foxtel, Nagravision (Singapore), Globecast Australia and Telstra Broadcast Services. Currently, he is the Managing Director of Champas Professional Services – a company that provides engineering, management and project consulting services for The Switch and other companies across the broader broadcasting and media industry. In addition, Paul has been a Manager, Section Board (Australia) at Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers since June 2020.

John is a highly-experienced sports anchor, who specialises in delivering live and recorded football content for broadcasters ranging from ESPN to Fox Sports, Disney+, Sony Sports, Vidio and SuperSport. He has hosted Premier League, Bundesliga, Champions League and major tournament coverage for clients worldwide, particularly in Asia.

George is a Content Manager at SportsPro leading in the curation of their online and in-person event agendas. He also hosts the weekly SportsPro Podcast exploring the trending news and themes across the world of sports business.

George has a strong background in B2B professional services having worked with KPMG in their marketing, sales and ESG teams before moving to Sports Marketing Agency WePlay in 2020 to oversee their marketing and communications team.

Since moving to SportsPro, George has been passionate about using their position as the largest B2B platform in sports to drive positive change in the industry by providing opportunities to a diverse range of voices and perspectives.

Robert Sawatzky is editorial director at Haymarket Media Asia, responsible for editorial reporting and content at its industry-leading titles including marketing & communications publication, Campaign Asia Pacific. Previously in Hong Kong and now based in Singapore, he leads editorial teams across the region, working closely with editors and contributors in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Mumbai, as well as globally. He is responsible for all editorial strategies across all media platforms including Campaign Asia’s websites in English, Chinese and Japanese, print magazines, email bulletins, social media channels and live events. As a keen observer of global and regional marketing trends. Robert is a frequent speaker and moderator at industry events throughout Asia and on issues related to advertising, marketing, creativity, data and media strategies. He is a veteran business journalist who prior to joining Haymarket was responsible for all content as managing editor at Canada’s largest financial television news network (BNN). Prior lead producer roles at other major media organizations included CNBC (Singapore and Hong Kong), CBC News Network (Toronto) and CTV (Toronto).

With a professional athletic background in Karate, with more than 12 successful years, Nadia joined the global sports movements and studied in one of the most prestigious Masters courses, FIFA Master, and started her journey in the international sports world. After graduating, she joined Juventus, in Italy, and oversaw various projects in branding, marketing and business development. With a profound knowledge in Europe and Asia, Nadia currently works for IMG’s global football division to develop the business in the APAC region