Leading experts joining us online

Sarah is the GM of Digital and Media at the AFL, running the largest digital sports media business in the country. Previously Sarah spent 10 years in Sydney in various senior leadership roles across digital video and adtech, including Managing Director at Videology ANZ and Chief Revenue Officer at Allure Media.

Passionate about digital, technology and diversity & inclusion, Sarah is also the founder of Wyse Women, a network promoting gender quality by increasing the participation of senior women in the workforce through flexible working.

Sarah holds a Batchelor of Science in Mass Communications and Cultural Studies degree from the Metropolitan university in London. In 2016 and 2017 Sarah was shortlisted in the B&T Women in Awards in the Mentor and Technology category.

Chatri Sityodtong is an entrepreneur and a martial artist from Thailand, best known as the Founder, Chairman and CEO of ONE Championship. Chatri Sityodtong was named Asia’s 2nd Most Powerful Person in Sports by FOX Sports.He is also set to star on the upcoming Asian edition of The Apprentice reality TV series.

As co-founder and CEO, Matt leads EASL’s overall strategy and executive team; while playing the central role in structuring and managing the organization’s relationships with FIBA and participating leagues and teams.

Prior to establishing EASL, as the only foreigner ever to take and pass the Chinese Sports Agent Certification Exam, Matt founded and grew ALTIUS to become the CBA league’s largest player agency.

Fluent in Chinese, Matt began his sports business career with the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks as the personal interpreter for Yi Jianlian. He had previously worked in several management roles within public relations and government affairs firms in Beijing.

As EVP & Managing Director of NBA Asia, Scott Levy oversees development and expansion of the NBA’s branding and basketball initiatives in Asia excluding Greater China. Levy also directs all of NBA Asia’s business groups including media distribution, marketing partnerships, merchandising, events, marketing, digital media, and e-gaming. Levy reports to NBA Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum.

Since Levy’s arrival in 2009, the league has dramatically expanded its local partnerships resulting in more than 500 retail locations and e-commerce sites, many new media and marketing partnerships, the launch of the Jr. NBA across Southeast Asia, and amassing more than 20 million followers from Asia across the league’s social media platforms.

From 2006 to 2009, Levy ran his own consulting company, MJ Global Sports and Media Inc. Levy previously worked for the NBA for 10 years and left as Senior Vice President, International Television and Marketing Partnerships. During Levy’s tenure, he helped grow broadcast distribution for NBA programming to more than 200 countries and 40 languages. Under this leadership, the NBA launched many new content offerings internationally, including NBA TV, the league’s 24-hour network.

Prior to beginning his first NBA stint in 1996, Levy traveled independently and extensively throughout China, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Levy is on the board of the Global Health Society, a nonprofit organization that conducts camps and develops programs for children with bleeding disorders. He has competed in multi-sport and adventure races, including the New York Marathon, Oxfam Japan Trailwalker and many triathlons raising funds for Fred’s Team and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Levy is based in Hong Kong with his wife Ilene and sons Matthew and Joshua.

Venky Mysore is the CEO of Red Chillies Entertainments & the CEO/MD of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), both owned by Mr. Shah Rukh Khan. Since taking over in 2013, Venky has built a new business model for Red Chillies, which has made it into a full-fledged studio. The focus has been on producing content for various platforms, content marketing and distribution. Additionally, Red Chillies has developed distribution capabilities not only in India but also in most of the world.

It also boasts of a fairly large library including a significant number of SRK films. Venky also oversees the VFX business, RC VFX has established itself with a significant body of work and is on the cutting edge of VFX work in films. It has established itself in Bollywood and is also engaged in several key International projects.

In his role as the CEO/MD of the sports business, Venky has been responsible for not only making KKR the most successful franchise in IPL but also the Knight Riders the only genuine global brand in cricket.

KKR has won IPL Championships in 2012 and in 2014 & is regarded as one of the most professionally run franchises in cricket. As part of its global strategy, the Knight Riders acquired franchises in Trinidad as part of the CPL and in Cape Town as part of the Global League in SA.

The Knight Riders franchise in CPL, Trinbago Knight Riders, has won 4 championship in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2020, since acquiring the franchise 6 years ago.

Prior to joining KKR, Venky had a very long and successful career spanning over two decades in financial services. He was the India Country Head of Birla Sunlife and prior to that he was the CEO & Managing Director of MetLife India.

Isaura Morales manages Sports Relationships across Southeast Asia for Facebook. Isaura has spent two and a half years with Facebook, previously based in Mexico, and now in the APAC HQ in Singapore.

Isaura is responsible for overseeing Facebook Relationships across Sports entities in SE Asia. Focusing on Sports Broadcasters, Leagues, Teams and Athletes with one focus, helping them achieve their business objectives through Facebook business solutions. Isaura graduated from Intercontinental University with a Bachelor of Business Administration. Before joining Facebook she used to work for the NBA, Google & Turner.

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.

Ed Miles is a senior executive in the global media, entertainment, and sports industry.

Ed spent 15 years as a VP at IMG | WWE with a remit across commercial sponsorship, endorsement rights, brand consultancy and broadcast sales working with some of the world’s largest sports and media entities.

Ed joined Google in Sydney in 2014 and after three years managing one of Google’s largest sales functions joined YouTube. In his current role, Ed is Head of TV, Film and Sports Content Partnerships for Asia Pacific and Head of Creator and Content Partnerships for AuNZ.

With two decades of experience in the sports and media industry, Yannick Colaco co-founded FanCode in March 2019. FanCode, India’s first multi-sport aggregator platform, focuses on long-tail sports content and contextual commerce for every sports fan.

With all his years of experience in the industry, and being an avid sports fan himself, Yannick was determined to help improve the consumption experience of sports fans, an experience which is fragmented and underserviced when it comes to accessibility to content, commerce and building fan communities. Addressing this, along with another industry veteran – Prasana Krishnan, Yannick co-founded FanCode as a brand under Dream Sports.

Prior to FanCode, Yannick was part of the International Leadership Team of the NBA and Managing Director of its India business, and also served as the Chief Operating Officer of Nimbus Sport in the past.

Richard joined the NFL as Managing Director of NFL China on December 1st 2010. He has more than 25 years of experience in sports event management, sales, and marketing with a strong focus in media rights and market strategy.

His previous work experience in China includes driving a Chinese media joint venture partnership responsible for launching China’s first nationwide HD sports channel; and founding The Young Company, which provided consulting services in production, distribution and media rights in China for leading sports leagues, broadcasters and commercial sponsors.

Hursh Shrivastava is the Head of Strategy at International Cricket Council (ICC), the global governing body for cricket. He drives strategy formulation and growth initiatives for ICC. Hursh has leadership experience in the TMT and consumer internet sectors. He has held senior roles at Amazon, Star India and EY in the areas of product, strategy, new business development and growth/investments.

As General Manager of the Olympic Channel, Mark Parkman is responsible for overseeing the content creation, technical delivery and digital platform development, as well as integrating partnerships with Olympic Rights Holding Broadcasters, sponsors, International Sports Federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and organizing committees of the Olympic Games (OCOGs).¬¬ In its first year of operation, the Olympic Channel was named the Best Sport Thematic Channel by the TV Sports Awards.
Following its launch in 2016, the Olympic Channel has amassed nearly nine million followers on social media and has generated more than 2.5 billion video views across its platforms from the 19,500 pieces of video that have been created. Original productions include more than 65 series from companies representing 25 different countries, with many of the content winning awards, including the prestigious Webby and Telly Awards. Parkman also created the critically acclaimed documentary series Five Rings Films and selected legendary Hollywood producer Frank Marshall and Mandalay Sports Media to co-produce the films. Agreements have been reached with 91 international sports federations, which have resulted in the Olympic Channel live streaming more than 3500 events. A traditional television version of the Olympic Channel made its debut in 35 million homes in cable systems across the USA on July 2017 in partnership with NBC and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), beIN HD 10 Olympic Channel was created in November 2017 and is distributed across 23 countries. The Olympic Channel extended its distribution to connected TV devices in late-2018 and early-2019 with the launch on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV and Roku. Continuing in 2020, Olympic Channel will launch a television channel and a localized website and apps in China in partnership with CCTV.
Before joining the Olympic Channel, Mark served as the Operations Executive for Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) and Vice-President of International Sports Broadcasting (ISB), where he oversaw the operations of the host broadcaster for the Olympic Games. He was awarded an Emmy for his work on the host broadcaster team for the Olympic Winter Games Salt Lake City 2002. Mark previously worked in marketing, public relations and international television coordination with Turner Broadcasting System and Cohn & Wolfe, where he led media efforts for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NASCAR and PGA Golf.

As Managing Director, Tony Qi is responsible for growing MLB’s brand and baseball development in China, overseeing media cooperation, fans participation, strategic investment, content production, government relation, etc.

Tony has worked in global media sector for more than 16 years, with expertise on content production and distribution, investment, strategy formulation and business development.

A highlight of his tenure with Fox Networks Group was facilitating and leading the cooperation of content projects and distribution strategy with dozens of partners, including CCTV, Tencent, China Intercontinental Communication Center, SMG and Alibaba.

Marcus is the Chief Commercial Officer for Gemdale Sports, the global commercial partner for the FIS Freestyle skiing world Championship and also partner for the WTA tennis here in Shenzhen.

More than 20 years’ experience working in sports media with experience leading marketing leading multi-platform sports properties. In 2015 co-founded Goal Studios, Perform’s football digital agency that represents global clients such as UEFA, Nissan, Toyota, Rakuten and Hyundai.

Martyn relocated to Tokyo in 2017 to join the DAZN Japan leadership and assumed overall responsibility for the business in August 2018.

Chris Tran is the Head Of Esports for Southeast Asia at Riot Games, He leads the Singapore-based team in the areas of  business development, esports league operations, management of Riot’s relationship with Garena, League of Legends co-marketing, and more.

Chris is focused on developing Riot’s esports efforts in the region, which includes management of leagues that cover Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Ant Hearne joined Kayo Sports in September 2019 as Chief Commercial Officer. The new role is responsible for driving business growth through innovative data driven digital initiatives. Mr Hearne leads commercial strategies, marketing and customer acquisition and management for the company.

A global leader in his field, Mr Hearne brings over 20 years of digital experience having worked across telco, digital media and marketing for large corporates and global tech start-ups. He joined Kayo after recently returning from New York where he was Chief Commercial Officer for marketing technology startup, Rokt. During his time at Rokt he led global Business Development, Operations and Marketing among other responsibilities.

Tammy has been involved in esports since the 90s in wide-ranging capacities, locally and internationally. From working part-time at a LAN Shop to becoming an esports competitor and influencer, she has since worked at Razer, Twitch and LGD.

Specialising in event and tournament management and marketing, she has worked the Tokyo Game show, TwitchCon, Gamescom, and tournament brands World Cyber Games and Nanyang Championships.

A strong advocate of diversity in esports and growing the grassroots, Tammy has built a strong female gaming network in SEA over the years, and leads Team Asterisk*, an organisation which supports and enables competitive female gamers.

Kevin Sim was appointed Head of Asia Pacific for Bundesliga International earlier this year, having previously been Director of Global Media Rights at ONE Championship since 2016. Before he worked as Marketing Director for the international sports rights agency MP & Silva and lastly for five years at Multi Channels Asia in a number of different roles. His last post at Multi Channel Asia was that of Commercial Director. His previous positions have focused, among other things, on the development of existing and new media channels.

Reed began his tech career in the special effects industry, but then the first Internet bubble divereted his attention to streaming media and development.  He has worked in technology for over 20 years. His experience spans start-ups to global companies like True, Qwest, KPN, PCCW, LVMH, IMG, and Intuit.

Mike joined beIN Asia Pacific at its inception in May 2016. As Managing Director, Mike works closely with the beIN Media Group’s global leadership team to realise its mission of redefining the sports and entertainment experience for fans in Asia and ANZ. With extensive experience in media, sales and sports marketing, Mike is tasked with shaping beIN’s business model and operations in the region while identifying new customer experiences and revenue opportunities.

Lee Choong Khay or better known as CK, is the Vice President of Sports Business for Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd, a leading content and consumer group in Asean. CK joined Astro in 1997 and has nearly 20 years of experience in the broadcast industry. He was instrumental in developing Astro SuperSport, which has become one of the top sports channels in Malaysia and the region, as well as launching the first 24-hour sports channel in Malaysia, Astro Arena, whose comprehensive coverage has raised the profile of many Malaysian sports and athletes. Over the years, Astro has brought prime sport franchises like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA EURO, Premier League, Olympics, F1, Thomas Cup, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games to Malaysian sports fans. Following the latest trend of eSports, Astro launched a dedicated eSports channel, eGG Network on Astro TV, AOTG and Tribe in June 2016.

Jake Lush McCrum oversees day to day operations of the business. Aim is to maximise cricket as a P&L through trading, auction process, coaching structure, performance, youzh cricket and content. He also leads the company’s global expansion through academies and online education.

Guy Port is the Head of APAC for WSC Sports, responsible for commercial operations in the region.

He was the Managing Director Asia for Nielsen Sports and has over 15 years’ experience working across the global sport business industry. During this time with Nielsen Sports (Repucom) he worked across various roles for the leader in sport research, managing their operations in North America, Australia and Asia.

Guy’s focus has been providing insights and strategic guidance to the leading Leagues, Teams, Sponsors, Media and sport business brands around the world.

Guy is based in Sydney, Australia.

Jay Li is the Vice President and General Manager for Greater China at the WWE. Prior to joining the organisation he held multiple leadership positions in key industries in China and the U.S. Li leads WWE’s strategic business development initiatives and day-to-day operations in China and works in conjunction with local government authorities and partners across all of WWE’s lines of the business including television, live events, marketing, sponsorship, new media, licensing and merchandising.

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.

KAWO connects teams across the globe providing data insights, greater transparency and increased efficiency. We help international brands in China be more authentic and consistent on social media. Founded in 2013, KAWO’s experienced team is focused on delivering high quality solutions allowing our clients to iterate fast in China’s rapidly changing social landscape.

Greg Turner has successfully led increasingly complex organisations in building, financing and presenting live experiences. Based in China since 2000, he has previously held senior leadership positions in both the live event and venue management industries. He has dealt extensively with various level of Chinese government and has vast experience working in 1st to 4th tier Chinese cities.

Ivan is an ambitious and talented sports management expert with a Masters in Sports Management from the Johan Cruyff Institute, and is a double degree holder of Business Administration and Sports Management from Ramón Llull, a prestigious university in Spain. He has over 15 years of experience in the Sports industry, with the past 10 years being in Asia. He has succeeded in different roles in FC Barcelona, SportSG, and agencies like Red Card and Dentsu, and is currently heading the Regional Office for SEA, Australia, Japan and South Korea for LaLiga. His extensive experience also included helping global brands such as Toyota, Panasonic and General Motor navigate the intricacies of Sports Marketing.

Elliot Renton has been entrenched in the Asia sports and media industry for over 16 years. He is currently the Senior Director & Head of APAC for GRABYO, the market leader in cloud-based video production, live streaming, editing and distribution.

Prior to joining Grabyo, Elliot served as Regional Director and Head of Sport for Discovery Networks Asia and before that, he was with PERFORM Group, the world leading sports digital media company as the Managing Director for Emerging Markets Asia. His experience in the region includes successfully leading and launching ambitious growth activities for new and established businesses covering technology, rights, content distribution and advertising.

Elliot has previously also held commercial roles at Nokia, Getty Images and Thomson Reuters in Asia. Elliot is originally from London and has been based in Singapore since 2003. He holds a Bachelors of Arts, Honours in Information and Media Studies from Brighton University.

Matt  Loreille has spent over 25 years in the TMT (Telecom, Media & Technology) industry. He spent the initial part of his career on the technical side working at Orange France, the Portuguese Service Provider Optimus and at Ericsson in Sweden before evolving to marketing roles, spending 10 years at Amdocs as Vice-President of Marketing Strategy & Innovation. In March 2019, Matt became the new CMO of Wildmoka.

Rishi Varma is the Product Head for Media & Delivery Solutions, responsible for driving the Product Management and strategy for Akamai’s Media business in Asia Pacific and Japan regions, including Regional innovation and market needs. A seasoned technology strategist, Rishi Varma has been with Akamai Technologies for over 5 years now and has worked in numerous roles across Asia Pacific and EMEA markets, helping companies with their Digital Media, Online Video experiences and Monetization strategies

Matthew is the Regional Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific at Verizon Media Platform (based in Singapore); He has been in the business of streaming live video in the region for nearly two decades. Verizon Media Platform offers an industry-leading, end-to-end cloud based suite of products and services to prepare, secure, deliver, display and monetize online content. Our 96 Tbps content delivery network consists of over 5,500 interconnects at 145 points of presence on six continents ensuring high-quality viewing of digital content on any device anywhere/anytime for many of the world’s largest sports broadcasters, publishers and media companies. Verizon Media Platform also owns & operates an industry leading Web Application Firewall (WAF) and provide other cyber-security services to help protect your online presence from DDoS, API and Application Layer attacks. Learn more about how Verizon Media Platform is delivering the future of media at www.verizondigitalmedia.com

Avigail Gutman has been a hacker-tracker since the early days of broadcast TV piracy all the way through to today’s streaming and content piracy. She leads a global team that disrupts piracy by turning information about pirates’ technologies and the pirates themselves into actionable intelligence, informing field and legal operations, and resulting in new counter measures. The anti-piracy team works alongside industry organizations, government and law enforcement agencies.

Anton Brams was appointed as Genius Sports’ first streaming director in 2019 following the successful acquisition of Oppia Performance.
Following a career as a former professional volleyball player, statistician and coach, including three years as a technical coordinator for the U.S. Men’s National team and a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Anton led the development of one of the first fully automated, mobile streaming solutions in world sport.

Since joining Genius Sports, Anton has led the launch of GeniusLive, a cost-effective solution for multiple sports at every level. He has a wealth of experience and expertise in automated production, performance and OTT, working alongside leagues and federations across Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Simon is Director of Eurasian Sport at emlyon Business School (based in Paris & Shanghai), where he is also Professor of the Eurasian Sport Industry and Director of CESI – Centre for the Eurasian Sport Industry. In addition, he co-founded and co-directs the China Soccer Observatory (University of Nottingham, UK), and is a member of Tsinghua University’s Sport Industry Research Centre in Beijing.

He is a researcher, writer, academic, consultant and speaker with more than twenty-five years experience in the global sport industry. He has particular expertise working at the intersection of sport, business, politics and technology, specifically in a Eurasian context.

Simon has written numerous articles, books and research reports for the likes of Sloan Management Review, the Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Mastercard, Newsweek, Reuters and Financial Times Prentice Hall. In addition, he has worked with some of the biggest names in sport, such as FC Barcelona, UEFA, Adidas, the Association of Tennis Professionals, Qatar 2022, Nielsen, the European Clubs Association, Ping and Coca Cola.

He is currently engaged in projects examining links between sports sponsorship and soft power; the industrial development of sports in the Gulf region; China’s quest to become a leading football nation; the phenomenon of transnational sports fandom; the role social media plays in sport; and the way equity in sports brands is built through experiential marketing.

Sean Callanan understands the technological evolution of the digital landscape. He has worked with international brands, is a highly sought after public speaker and the go to resource for under-optimised digital teams.

Sean has been a pioneer in the sports digital industry. Creating voice and conversion channels for brands that speak directly to the millennial generation. Providing high level guidance in relation to content, fan engagement and social strategy within client side teams.

Sean’s experience in leading sports industry into digital age has seen him enter esports with the formation of SG Esports in late 2018. Gravitas is a professional League of Legends team in the Oceanic Pro League you can follow them on Gravitas.gg

Sean’s formal training is as a coder and developer. He has maintained those qualifications and deploys the technical skills across behavioural social channels. Sean provides a unique set of skills that encompass creative, trigger based engagement and distribution knowledge.

Born and bred in Wales, Craig’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident from an early age. Within days of graduating from the University of St Andrews in Scotland with a Mathematics and Physics degree, he co-founded a business with a fellow graduate, which specialised in bringing interactive learning to visitor attractions and education institutions across the world.