Tokyo, Japan
Seoul, South Korea
Beijing, China
Hong Kong SAR
Shenzhen. China
Shanghai, China
Bangkok, Thailand
Singapore
Jakarta, Indonesia
Sydney, Australia
Auckland, New Zealand
Taipei , Taiwan
AN EXPERIENCED TEAM WITH A DEEP NETWORK ACROSS ASIA
TRANSFORMING AND EMPOWERING THE SPORTS, ESPORTS, AND WELLBEING ECOSYSTEMS FOR ASIA’S 4.5 BILLION CITIZENS BY LEVERAGING
MEET OUR FOUNDING TEAM
Over 100 Years of Combined Asia Experience
Loron has over 20 years of experience in Asia Pacific in corporate strategy, marketing, sports marketing, sales and business development for the National Basketball Association (NBA), IMAX, the Ivey Business School, and consulting company OMI.
He was the first person hired in Asia by the NBA and eventually became the Managing Director of NBA Asia. He was also the first person hired in Asia by Imax (ex Japan) and was responsible for Film Distribution and eventually became the Managing Director of IMAX Japan. Loron has also served as Regional Director of Ivey Business School's Executive MBA program at Western University's Hong Kong campus.
Loron is currently working on marketing entry, growth and innovation strategies and fundraising for several North American, European and Asia sports technology companies. as well as, helping the development of sports federations and teams in Asia. Loron also works with leading sports tech accelerators Stadia Ventures in St. Louis, USA and he is also the Chairman of the Sports Committee at The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
Adil Saxena is the Vice President of Growth at AST and brings over 10 years of experience in Asia Pacific in Business Development, Marketing, Digital and Strategy across FMCG, Sports, Retail & Consumer Services.
At AST, Adil is focussed on working closely with our partners to create robust sales pipelines and represent them in the market. He joins AST after nearly four years at FC Barcelona, where he was a member of the core commercial team in Asia, responsible for creating and maintaining C-level relationships with top brands across the APAC region. He was additionally tasked with leading marketing and engagements efforts across South Asia. He spent the early part of his career in various marketing roles at Yum! Brands, across the Digital, Activation and Innovation teams.
Adil moved to Hong Kong in 2016 and graduated from the MBA at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is extremely passionate about the transformation of sports, health and fitness and is a huge believer in Asia’s rise to prominence.
Jean-Baptiste ROY has served in a variety of roles for more than 10 years in Asia including Director of the PE/VC arm for Clipper Capital (Family office of the Wertheimer Family) and Associate Director of Strategic Advisory for Censere Group/Stratiqa. Jean-Baptiste has assisted a wide range of companies, from start-ups to multinationals including Lagardère, Wanda, Bank Of China and Legrand as well as investment funds including IDG Capital or Sequoia Capital.
From go-to-market strategy to find investors, strategic partners and clients, Jean-Baptiste is here to give you insights about this fragmented but exciting Asia-Pacific region. He helps building the new generation of talents by lecturing for MBA programs at HKUST and CUHK in “Global and Asia Sports Management”. He graduated with a MSc in Corporate Finance from SKEMA Business School (France) and HKUST and still continues polishing his mandarin at CUHK (Hong Kong).
He is also a mentor at Le Tremplin, the world’s first sports innovation hub based in Paris, France and as well as Health and Lifestyle growth ASICS Tenkan-Ten in Barcelona, Spain.
Joanna Cheung has been in the sports and entertainment marketing
profession in China for over 15 years working for IMG and the NBA.
profession in China for over 15 years working for IMG and the NBA.
Joanna was one of the first people hired by the NBA in China. She was instrumental in building the league’s marketing partnerships business over a fast-growing 10-year period, NBA’s first exhibition game in NBA, signing the first NBA player endorsement deal in China, USAB around the 2008 Beijing Olympics. From 2000 to 2004, Joanna was Marketing Manager at IMG and was responsible to managing sponsorship accounts for the Chinese Soccer League (CSL) and Chinese Basketball Association (CBA)leagues during a critical period of their development.
Joanna is currently working with rights owners to build their presence in China, creating strategies to engage with the local market with considerations to preserve the authenticity of the owners’ core values.
MEET OUR EXTENDED TEAM OF SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS
Currently advising Therabody on Asia Growth strategies, Gene spent the past 18 years with Life Fitness Asia Pacific playing an important role in building out the infrastructure for Asia’s rapidly growing fitness, health & wellness and hotel industries. In his roles in business development and as Managing Director Gene developed strong relationships with the region’s fitness providers, hospitality brands, real estate developers, private member clubs and sports industry retailers.
Prior to Life Fitness, Gene worked for the ATP Tennis Tour and K-Swiss, an athletic footwear and apparel brand. Gene started his career in Asia in the hospitality industry, working with the Hilton in Guam, InterCon Hotel in Bahrain and the Grand Hyatt in Seoul.
Gene holds a Masters of International Business Degree from Melbourne University and a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Ruby Lee is one of the first batch of entrepreneurs of youth physical fitness in China. She has a deep understanding of the general health and sports industry, especially the fitness and youth health industry, and she is committed to expanding sports frontier projects.
With the strong strategic thinking and innovation ability, rich marketing and management experience, Ruby has provided management and marketing solutions for some small and medium-sized enterprises in recent years.
She is very good at business negotiation and promoting business cooperation. Other than the insightful view of the market,Ruby has a keenness and judgment on customer psychology and market demand characteristics and related policies. Ruby has close contact and cooperation with Chinese Physical Fitness Association and other related physical fitness and health organizations.
Born in Korea and raised in France, Jay is an entrepreneur with strong experience in various sectors globally.
After starting his career as a marketer at Samsung Electronics, he took on an entrepreneurial journey by founding and running successively a production company, a creative agency, and a strategic consultancy, working with world-leading brands such as Hyundai, KIA, Nike, PayPal, Estée Lauder, Ubisoft, Marriott International and many more.
After many years spent between Paris and Hong Kong, Jay is now based in Seoul, Korea, focusing on helping global businesses grow in the high potential yet complicated market that South Korea is, by creating the right go-to-market strategy to engage with the local partners and clients.
Gary was recently Director within KPMG Advisory (China / Hong Kong ) with over 25 years background in change and transformation, with experiences in management consulting, banking, insurance, telecommunications and technology organisations in Asia Pacific
With a focus on behavioural change, health and wellbeing and medical spend, Gary has been working with several major corporates in Hong Kong and Singapore over the past 6 years.
Gary’s strengths are in understanding the problem from a customer and staff perspective, challenging the status quo with a growth mindset, transforming the business from a people, process or technology perspective and ensuring realisation of both financial and non-financial benefits.
From an Asia Pacific perspective, Gary has alsp worked in HSBC since 2008, in both developing and developed countries, spearheading change while cognisant of cultural and regulatory challenges.
Educated in France with a Master’s Degree in Materials Engineering from the Institute Mines Telecom, Thibaud Brunel is a 15+ years-experienced professional with more than 10 years experience in Asia.
Since 2018, he advises help the Taiwanese industrial eco-system establish bridges with complementary global partners and has been working on composite materials parts production solution for auto, bike and aero sectors, EV components sourcing, startups partnerships and funding, supply chain management, and supports some international companies set-up their development plans in the Asia Pacific region, with a strong focus on Taiwan.
As Technical Manager for the Engineering Services entity of the well-known French Consulting company CapGemini, he created the first aerospace engineering services business for Airbus.
Then decided to discover Asia with Applus+, one of the world’s leading in Vehicles Homologations, Quality Inspections and Testing services, launched the Aeronautics and Automotive Test Lab for Applus Laboratories subsidiary in Shanghai, China, and supported the Applus Laboratories in its global development strategy.
In 2014, he joined Argosy International, leader in Composite Material Supply Chain Management in APAC region, to create a new line of business focused on Composite Manufacturing Services, adding value to Argosy’s initial activity. In this context, he led the definition and construction of the first Argosy Taiwan Manufacturing site, following principles of Industry 4.0, implementing IIoT tools and Sustainable Energy Solutions. He also established a strategic partnership with Plataine, a global leader in IIOT SaaS Solutions.
Greg has over 20 years experience in China’s sports and live event industry. His areas of expertise include venue and event management, commercial & marketing strategy, government relations and
During his time in China, Greg has led a team on re-opening Shanghai’s historically preserved Jiangwan Sports Center, worked with China’s first ever Winter Olympic Gold Medalist Yang Yang on developing grass roots ice sports, established various various international IP sports events and properties. Most recently, he worked for the Li Ka Shing Foundation in opening and operating the STU Sports Park and Academic House hotel, executing Mr Li’s personal vision for opening an international standard sports and entertainment venue in his home town of Shantou.
Greg is currently working on building bridges between the China and the international sports community, helping build market strategies, engage local partners and align with important government policies.
Victor is a seasoned sports media and entertainment executive holding senior positions in global industry leading companies such as WME-IMG, ESPN, STAR Sports, NBA, and ONE Championship. For the past two-plus decades he has led these organizations in business development, commercial strategy, talent management, marketing and content partnerships.
In 2010, he founded Integrated Sports & Entertainment (ISE) – an agency that partners with content owners, rights-holders, and brands across all sports and entertainment media platforms with a focus in the Asia region.
For ONE Championship, he was an early consultant and then brought into the leadership team to build the commercial department and subsequently the in-house talent management agency that drove rapid growth to develop ONE into the world’s largest martial arts organization and a billion-dollar valuation with blue-chip institutional investors Temasek and Sequoia.
Watch this space as we keep adding on to our growing our team of experts.
