Paul Wong, Managing Director, Infront China

Within 18 months after he joined the Infront Group, Paul Wong had helped Infront to conclude 3 major contracts in China; a Joint Venture company with China Basketball Associations (CBA) to promote and market all commercial rights of the CBA League, and agreements as exclusive marketing and technical partner of both China’s national basketball and football teams. Up until 2003 Paul Wong worked for IMG, his last role at IMG’s was as Senior International Vice President, Managing Director, China, Paul worked for IMG for 15 years. While working for IMG, he was one of the key persons to help the CFA and CBA develop their professional leagues from scratch. He also has experience in working with many other sports in China including table tennis and badminton.

Mikko Vanni, Managing Director, Infront Finland / Infront Sweden

Mikko Vanni has worked in the sponsorship business since the mid 80s. Now his responsibility is to lead Infront’s entire Nordic operations. He serves as Managing Director of Infront Finland OY and Infront Sweden AB. Mikko Vanni is specialised in organising World Championship and European Championship events. He has held key roles working on the IIHF World Championship (1997 and 2003), EAA European Championships in Athletics 1994, IAAF World Championships (2005), ISU World Championships in Figure Skating (1999), FIS Nordic Ski World Championships 2001 and in several World Cup level events. Mikko was involved in coaching on a national level up until 1997. In addition to his broad experience in the field of sport, Mikko also has wide experience in organising cultural events.

Lars-Christer Andersson, Managing Director, Infront Sweden
Lars-Christer has been in the Swedish market for the last 12 years/since 1995, working with sponsorship and event marketing. With focused on sales of sponsorship and event marketing, also structuring of deals and their implementation. With great broader experience in structuring revenue deals from organizations both in sporting as well as from cultural events. Lars-Christer were 2003 – 2005 also Co-Owner of Live Stockholm with specialist of event marketing. Lars-Christer has working with the most well renowned company’s in Sweden as Eventum, MTG, Sponsor Service and IMG. Time before sponsoring Lars-Christer was working 8 year with sales of new and used aircrafts in general aviation market. The own company Andersson Aircraft was agents for Piper, Mooney and Avions Pierre Robin. Both international and domestic sales focus.

Dr. Uwe Ploch, Managing Director, Infront Germany
Uwe Ploch co-heads Infront’s operations in Germany. A German national, he studied Economics in Munich and Berlin (Dr. Oec.) and European Business Law in St. Gallen (MBL). He has worked in the sports marketing industry for more than 15 years, starting his career with the former CWL, one of the early pioneers of the business, which became part of Kirch Sport in 2001 and Infront Sports & Media in 2002. As a result of this early exposure to the development of the industry, Uwe’s experience is extremely wide and his involvement in the business has included a wide variety of sports and many trend-setting developments like split-screen advertising and computer-controlled rotating advertising. He has worked closely on the DFB project over many years.

Giuseppe Ciocchetti, Managing Director, Infront Italy

Prior to joining Infront Italy, Giuseppe Ciocchetti spent more than 10 years working for the Italian merchant bank Sopaf S.p.A.. His last role at Sopaf was as CFO of the entire Group and CEO of the real estate division. He joined Infront Italy (formerly Media Partners) in June 2000 and took the responsibility for the overall company structure and organisation as well as for the development of the corporate and financial strategy of Infront Italy. In his current position he oversees all the activities and business areas of the Milan-based company. Giuseppe holds an Economic and Business degrees from Bocconi’s University in Milan.

Dr. Stephan Seykora, Managing Director, APF Marketing Services

Stefan Seykora, an Austrian national, studied law and graduated from the Leopold Franzens University of Innsbruck, Austria. He began his career as a bank trainee in Munich and then went on to pass the Austrian bar exam, specialising in business law. Stefan practiced in international law firms in Vienna and Vaduz for several years. In 1994 he joined APF as a Managing Director and shareholder, with initially a focus on the company’s legal & corporate, human resources and administrative sectors. Later Stefan also took over responsibility for APF’s structure & organisation as well as areas of APF’s acquisition & sales business.

Volker Schmid, Managing Director, APF Marketing Services

Volker Schmid, an Austrian national, started his professional career as a forwarding merchant and soon took over as CEO of the respective family business. A sports enthusiast and an active track and fields athlete in his young years, Volker made a career change in 1981 when he joined the then famous sports rights company CWL as a Senior Marketing Manager. In 1985 Volker founded APF, which under his lead as CEO and sole shareholder rapidly grew to be the leading player in winter sports business that it is today. Since 1994 he has mainly focused his responsibilities on the Marketing & Sales division of APF.

Dr. Christian Müller, Managing Director, Empire of Sports
Christian Müller, a Swiss national, has been Head of Business Development at Infront Sports & Media before assuming the responsibility as Managing Director of Empire of Sports Ltd., the company producing and operating the Empire of Sports gaming platform. Before joining Infront, Christian has been a consultant at McKinsey & Company for six years, where he managed various projects in the sports, entertainment and gaming industry. Christian holds a PhD in Technical Chemistry and is a graduated Chemical Engineer from the Swiss Institute of Technology.

Francis Tellier, CEO of Host Broadcast Services (HBS)

Francis Tellier, a French national, graduated from SUPELEC, "the French MIT" and the Paris Dauphine Business School. Francis has spent more than 25 years managing Radio and TV broadcast operations, with a dedication to the design and delivery of new projects in the field of broadcasting and/or multimedia. Since his involvement in the host broadcasting of the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics as the Director in charge of general planning and venue operations - Francis' career has included the host broadcasting of most major sport events. He was Managing Director of TVRS 98, the host broadcaster of the 1998 FIFA World Cup™ in France and is CEO of HBS, the host broadcaster of the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ and the 2006 FIFA World Cup™. Francis Tellier is also the CEO of DAGBS (Doha Asian Games Broadcast Services - the Host Broadcaster for the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006).