Previous Speakers

Prabhu was appointed Director of Technology in August 2019. He was previously Head of Service in the Broadcast and Infrastructure team, and has been at Sky since December 2010. Prabhu has broad technology, telco, broadcast and online experience and prior to joining Sky, he held service delivery and management roles at Vodafone and TelstraClear.

Prabhu leads Sky’s technology team alongside Justin Tomlinson. Justin heads Sky Digital, an exciting new team with a focus on building Sky’s digital future. Prabhu and his team are responsible for all other aspects of Sky’s technology, including our strong commitment to continuing to deliver excellent services to Sky Direct-to-Home customers.

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 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.

Julian Ogrin, CEO Kayo Sports and BINGE, has 25 years’ experience working in Mobile Network Operators both domestically and internationally, with senior roles in companies such as Europe’s Tele2 Group and Meteor Mobile. Julian held the position of Managing Director and CEO at telecommunications company amaysim between 2015-2018, overseeing the rapid rise of the company, which launched in November 2010, to become the leading challenger brand in the Australian mobile sector.

In the role, Julian was responsible for creating the largest Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) in Australia, with over 1.1 million subscribers. A network which was voted MVNO of the year in 2017 & 2018 by Comms Day Edison Awards, and Roy Morgan Telco of the year on three occasions.

He pioneered the launch of an online subscription-based pricing model in Australia, with Unlimited Voice & Text and Included data, now the hero product with all competitors.
Under Julian’s leadership amaysim was transformed into a diversified digitally led Household Service Provider, with the company now offering Mobile, NBN, Electricity and Gas products to over 800k households.

Julian’s rich understanding of consumer behaviours is a vital asset as he leads the Kayo and BINGE streaming business. Mr Ogrin has accountability for all streaming services; Kayo Sports, BINGE, Watch AFL and Watch NRL.

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.

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.

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.

Being a giant nerd, Maurizio has always been interested in tech, sports, and media (movies and moviemaking are one of his passions).

After a successful career as a basketball coach, he started working in the digital field in 1999, joining MP Web, the digital media arm of the Mediapartners Group, the most important sports agency in Italy. MPWeb became a leader in the production and distribution of media content for the then called new media. MP Web was then renamed Infront Advanced Media Solutions, when the whole Mediapartners Group was acquired by Infront Sports and Media. He was also promoted to Managing Director of the new company.

Maurizio worked both in Europe and in Asia, before turning into an entrepreneur, founding and raising capital for two startups. He returned to Asia in 2013, taking the post of Head of Sports for Samsung Asia – where he was involved in creating and launching one of the most successful services of the Korean company in the region at the time, Samsung SportsFlow.

After a brief stint with another startup; Maurizio joined Twitter with the goal of growing communities, driving conversations around sport, as well as creating new revenue opportunities for Twitter’s partners by creating a lineup of programmes that will satisfy the ever-hungry-for-content audience in South East Asia.

Born in 1983 in Barcelona, Jordi Camps is a graduate in Sports Management and International Business from the UPF, speaks four languages fluently and has experience of more than 30 countries. Camps has worked for several renowned companies, including ODECO (IMAGO Group), Penalty, Atlas Sports Consulting and sports marketing agency UP2YOU, where he was in charge of activating sponsorship deals with Gatorade, Bwin, Mail Boxes and Damm, among others.

He returned to FC Barcelona as Head of Business Development APAC in 2017 after previously spending two years at the Club as a Sponsorship Manager. Ready to take on a new challenge and having garnered a solid background in managing sales, commercial and marketing issues, Jordi Camps entered 2020 as the Managing Director of the APAC office and later this year also became the Global Business Director.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Peter has over 25 years of highly successful experience as an accomplished senior C-Suite executive in sports administration with some of Australia’s most iconic sports and entertainment brands.
Peter is presently a key member of the senior management team at Football Federation Australia (FFA) in the role of Head of Marketing, Communications and Corporate Affairs.

Peter joined FFA from his previous role is Chief Executive Officer of Football Victoria (FV). In this role he was able to drive an ambitious new strategic growth agenda under the FootbALLways strategic plan devised under his stewardship. Achievements in this role include strong participation growth, unlocking over $300M in government funding to address the grassroots facilities gap in Victoria and a initiated the Home of the Matildas project, a $90M world class national training centre with government funding support from the Federal and State Governments.

Prior to joining FV, Peter had a successful three years as Chief Executive Officer at the Perth Glory Football Club. In this role, Peter played a critical role in the business transformation of the club and developing and implementing a new strategic plan, The Perth Glory Way, driving the club in a new and exciting direction which lead to significant improvements in the club’s operations and commercial achievements.

Peter has developed a strong reputation as a senior sports and entertainment executive with a demonstrable history of major accomplishments in all his roles as the strategic, marketing and commercial lead across a variety of Australian iconic high-performance sports brands. This includes eight (8) years with AFL clubs Hawthorn Football Club and North Melbourne Football Club, seven (7) years with the world-class Etihad Stadium located in Melbourne and 18 months National Sporting Organisation, Swimming Australia.

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.

With more than 35 years of experience as an executive leader and a proven track record working at the highest levels of sports administration on the global stage, French national Thierry Weil is an international, multi-cultural and multi-lingual leader. He is fluent in French, German and English. His strong international reputation in the highest echelons of the sports industry has been cemented thanks to his executive roles at two companies – Adidas Global and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).

Thierry Weil spent over 25 years working for Adidas and held the position of Vice President, Global Football Sports between 2003 and 2007, before enjoying a ten-year spell as Director
of Marketing with FIFA. Thierry Weil was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the International Hockey Federation in March 2018. He believes the values and respect within all levels of hockey are unique, whilst new international events, including the FIH Hockey Pro League, as well as Hockey 5s – the five-a-side format of playing hockey – present exciting opportunities for the growth of the sport worldwide.

Since joining FIH, Thierry Weil has overseen the successful organisation of numerous FIH events, including the 2018 FIH Men’s and Women’s World Cups, the launch of the inaugural
FIH Hockey Pro League in 2019, the 2019 FIH Series Finals and the FIH Hockey Olympic Qualifiers.

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.

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 Director – Media Products responsible for driving the product management and strategy for Akamai’s Media and Gaming Products in Asia Pacific and Japan regions, including Regional innovation and local market needs. A seasoned technology strategist, Rishi Varma has been with Akamai Technologies for close to a decade and has worked in numerous roles across Asia Pacific and EMEA markets, helping companies with their Digital Media, Online Video experiences and Monetization strategies. Rishi holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Electronics & Communications) degree and is currently based in the Akamai’s Singapore office.

Mohamed Feizel (Senior Commercial Partnerships Manager for Asia) With over 10 years’ experience working in sports development and management, Feizel has played a critical role in Genius Sports’ rapid emergence as one of the leading sports data and technology partners in Asian football.

Since joining in 2018, Feizel has taken lead responsibility for football partnerships in Southeast Asia, creating bespoke data and digital transformation strategies to streamline all levels of competition.
He has secured several new partnerships with leagues and federations across Asian football, including the Thai League, Football Association of Malaysia and Malaysian Football League. Prior to joining Genius Sports, Feizel worked in a key strategic and development role for the Football Association of Singapore as well as a football lead for Toyota sponsorship activation in Southeast Asia’.

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

Jonathan currently heads the Commercial & Marketing division of the Football Association of Singapore. In his current capacity, he has been instrumental in negotiating ground-breaking broadcast deals for the Singapore Premier League on Singtel and StarHub, Singapore’s 2 largest Pay TV networks.

A keen tech adopter, Jonathan also advocated the launch of the eSPL, the virtual version of the Singapore Premier League and the introduction of Live Match Stats for all SPL matches powered by Genius Sports.

Prior to his role in the FAS, Jonathan was the Marketing Director in international broadcaster Eleven Sports and was instrumental in starting up the broadcasters’ operations in Myanmar.

Jean-Luc Jezouin is Senior Vice President Business Development at NAGRA, in charge of new opportunities.

Jean-Luc joined the Kudelski Group in September 2007 as Senior Vice President in charge of developing the Mobile TV business. In 2009 he became Senior Vice President Product Line Management responsible for the Digital TV portfolio for conditional access systems and end-to-end solutions. From 2011 to 2017, he was Senior Vice President in charge of Sales and Services for the Asia Pacific region.

Prior to this, Jean-Luc was Vice President UMTS/LTE Product Line Management with Alcatel-Lucent after their acquisition of Nortel Networks’ UMTS business, where he led their UMTS and GSM portfolios from 2004 to 2007 and other executive positions in Sales & Marketing and Operations, in Europe and Asia since 1995.

Jean-Luc holds a PhD degree in Computer Science from the University of Paris, France, a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles, USA, and an Electrical Engineering degree from the “Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (Supélec)” in Paris, France.

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.

Patricio is the General Manager for Asia Pacific and Japan at Dalet. With over 20 years of experience in the broadcast, new media and telecommunications industry, spanning from content creation to licensing and distribution, with expertise in business, operations and professional services roles, and a truly global outlook, Patricio has helped dozens of organizations in their digital transformation journey.

Adrian is based in Sydney, Australia and oversees Bitmovin’s pre-sales and post-sales Solutions team for the Asia Pacific region. Adrian‘s career has taken him across the world running technical teams in Europe, Asia and Oceania. Prior to Bitmovin, Adrian worked at one of Australia’s largest Sports media organisations transforming workflow, broadcast and product facilities. He’s taken that experience now to help customers thrive in the use of Bitmovin player, analytics and encoding products.

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.

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.

Jay Ganesan is the SVP & Region Head for APAC. In this role, he is responsible for revenue growth, partnerships, customer success and operations in the region. Jay has close to 20 years’ experience in the telecom & media industry across roles in sales, business consulting, product development, commercial management, pre-sales, business development and general management roles.
Prior to Mediakind, Jay was at Irdeto leading their North & South East Asia business and before that at Cisco leading their Video Software & Solutions business in South East Asia. In both these roles, Jay spearheaded the transformation of his region to successful cloud-hosted SAAS businesses. Jay also held key positions at NDS, Alcatel-Lucent and IBM earlier in his career.

Christopher Rae is the Senior Vice President of Sales for Asia / Pacific (APAC) at Verimatrix. In this role, he provides strategic leadership for all sales, business development, and operational activities in the region to grow revenue and further expand the company’s expertise in content security and cybersecurity for media and entertainment into adjacent markets such as fintech, automotive, healthcare, agtech, retail, e-learning, smart cities, and other Internet of Things (IoT) applications.

Most recently he was the SVP of Global Operations for Verimatrix, and over 15+ years built and scaled the company’s operations from an early-stage startup to become a $250M global leader in content security and cybersecurity, protecting major video service operators from hackers, and protecting premium movies, television, and live sports from piracy on 2B+ devices at over 1200 telco, cable, satellite, streaming media pay-TV and IoT operators in over 120 countries today.

Before Verimatrix, he led professional services at Entriq (acquired by Irdeto) where he advised major brands such as NBC Universal, MTV Networks, Viacom, Canal+, DreamWorks, Major League Baseball, WWE, International Olympics Committee, Tencent, and Prince’s New Power Generation Music Club to integrate, secure, monetize, and launch high-traffic streaming media services. He developed software and web services for NaviSite Streaming Media (acquired by Akamai), web applications for CMGI’s entertainment portal iCAST.com (now MySpace), and co-founded ClearKey Solutions, an early SaaS-based digital rights management (DRM) and e-commerce platform.

He also serves as an advisor and angel investor to tech and media startups.

Christopher earned his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communications from the University of Maine, and his MBA in Technology Commercialization from University of California, San Diego

Frank Leenders has more than 25 years of experience in international sports marketing at the highest level.

He started his professional career with ISL Marketing during the FIFA World Cup 1990 and subsequently joined start-up company TEAM Marketing in 1992, where he was part of the launch and development of the international benchmark project, the UEFA Champions League, since its very first season (1992-93). Frank held several positions in marketing and operations and ultimately was heading the Television department (sales and production) between 1998 and 20001.

He moved to Rome to join pay Television Sky Italia in 2001, where he was Director of Sports Rights Acquisitions, responsible for the acquisition of all sports related Television rights.
In 2002 he returned to TEAM, where he became Managing Director and was appointed to the Board of Directors in 2005.

Following his departure at the end of 2010, he co-founded the independent sports marketing firm Value-Experience. In 2012, they developed a dedicated media and marketing unit for FIBA, the International Basketball Federation in Geneva, Switzerland. Frank holds the position of Director General of this entity: FIBA Media and Marketing Services SA.

Frank holds a degree in Economics from the University of St. Gallen (CH) and has an MBA from SDA Bocconi in Milano (I).

Benjamin has a global network and experience with a strong sports management background for 20 years, working in  multicultural environment and having delivered major events and competitions.  He has worked in the AFC (Asian Football Confederation), Football Association of Singapore, and currently with the Football Association of Thailand and Thai League as the deputy CEO.

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.

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.

Based in Singapore, Cecelia is Regional Strategy Manager at global sports digital agency & consultancy Mailman Group. Cecelia leads digital strategy for leading European football clubs across the Southeast Asia region, with a focus on to-market planning and execution. Cecelia recently launched Chelsea FC’s first-ever local language mobile app in APAC.

Cecelia’s previous experience includes global communications strategy across several of Unilever’s billion-dollar brands, working directly to identify opportunities in sports content and partnerships.

As a member of Singapore’s leading gender equality advocacy group (AWARE), cecelia is a strong advocate of diversity in the sports industry.

John hosts the discussion show “The John Dykes Show” three nights a week on Fox Sports Asia and contributes content to Fox’s digital and social platforms as well as appearing on the international edition of ESPN’s SportsCenter. He is Asia’s best-known football broadcaster and reinforced that reputation by anchoring the Premier League’s global content service from London for seven seasons. Before that he covered the Premier League, as well as the FIFA World Cup, UEFA European Championships and Champions League plus Asian Football Confederation competitions for major media outlets across the region. A writer, event host and keen sportsman, John has spent 30 years in Asia and lives with his wife and two daughters in Singapore.

James Miner is CEO at MinerLabs and Video Assure. Video Assure is an award winning cloud-based video stream performance monitoring platform that helps content companies better monetise streaming media.

A digital pioneer, James has led teams across Asia and Silicon Valley holding leadership roles at About.com, ESPN STAR Sports, Fox Sports Asia, Scient, Y&R Advertising and WPP GroupM. James is well known for his pioneering work on Video Streaming including ESPN Player, FOX Sports Play, and record setting Cricket Streaming for ESPN STAR India.

James is Digital Chapter Vice Chairman and Game Committee Co-Chairman at SGTECH.

Andrew McNicol is a sports writer for Hong Kong-based English-speaking news outlet South China Morning Post. He has a particular interest in football, rugby and mixed martial arts, and enjoys covering local athletes and niche sports in Asia. He speaks five languages and has a master’s degree in Media and Communications Governance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Andrew has worked in sports media for 12 years as a host, producer, commentator and writer. Having spent 6 years in Singapore with Fox Sports Asia, he has extensive experience covering elite competitions across the contient as well as being the network’s regional expert in combat sports. Now based in KL, he is head of video at Asianmma.com, a regular contributor for the South China Morning Post and a lead commentator for both the T1 Thai League and World Lethwei Championship.

JB, Co-founder of AST, is passionate about supporting businesses on how to best leverage the Asia-Pacific region to accelerate their growth from a Strategic, Commercial and Capital advisory angle. At AST, we focus on the growing opportunities in Sports, Fitness, Wellness and Esports in Asia-Pacific and we guide companies to new and exciting opportunities in unfamiliar markets.
With more than 10 years of experience in Private Equity and M&A in Asia-Pacific advising corporates and investors on acquisition and divestment strategies, he has  a well-rounded view on cross-border deals with Asian stakeholders and its pitfalls.

Graduated with Master Degree in Finance from HKUST and SKEMA Business School, France – and Mandarin degree from CUHK