SSC Announces Senior Management Appointments

20 JUL 2009

SSC Announces Senior Management Appointments

Chief for Sports Development & Singapore Sports Institute and Senior Director for Sports Marketing to strengthen SSC’s high performance, National Sports Association management & sports commercialisation capabilities

Singapore, 20 July 2009 - The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) announced two new management appointments today which will strengthen its high performance, National Sports Association (NSA) management and sports commercialisation capabilities.

Said Oon Jin Teik, Chief Executive Officer of the SSC: “The management changes are part of our continuous review to ensure our organisation structure and capabilities are one step ahead of the dynamically changing sports environment internationally, regionally, and in Singapore. This will enable us to deliver maximum value to the Singapore sports fraternity.”

Robert P Gambardella

Robert P Gambardella joins SSC as its Chief for Sports Development & Singapore Sports Institute on 20 July 2009.

Bob will oversee all high performance and NSA management matters collectively, so as to provide a one-stop and seamless approach to managing all athlete, coach, officials and NSA matters. He will work in partnership with NSAs - SSC’s key sports delivery partners - to help them enhance their organisational management capabilities. Bob will also lay the foundation and start up the future Singapore Sports Institute at the Singapore Sports Hub.

A seasoned international sports professional with over 25 years’ experience, Bob was providing sports consultancy services to various international sports organisations before joining SSC. These include the North, Central America & Caribbean Volleyball Confederation (NORCECA); the Italian Volleyball professional club and Logan Tom (3x Olympic Volleyball Player - Silver medalist in Beijing); and the Association of Volleyball Professionals (Beach Volleyball).

Prior to this, he was with the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) as its former Director for Sports Partnership Division where he focussed on optimising the performance of Sports National Governing Bodies (NGB*) in the United States of America.

At the USOC, Bob worked closely with NGB CEOs and high performance staff to develop strategic high performance plans for athletes and coaches for sustained competitive excellence at world and Olympic events. He was also instrumental in putting in place sustainable infrastructure in NGBs through governance reform and organisational development utilising a best practices approach.

As a contributing member of the USOC’s Resource Allocation team, with a multi-million dollars annual budget allocation, Bob is well versed in ensuring that performance funding is directed and allocated towards performance impacting initiatives at the world and Olympic levels.

Bob also helmed various leadership roles in the USOC including Director for International Development & Programmes as well as Chief Executive of USA Taekwondo. At USA Taekwondo, Bob led the USD$3.8 million NGB as part of the USOC’s Executive-on-loan programme and oversaw the full spectrum of operations - including strategic management, high performance planning and delivery, governance reform, events, marketing and sponsorship. Under his leadership, USA Taekwondo delivered two medals at the 2004 Athens Olympics (1 gold, 1 silver) and four medals (3 gold, 1 bronze) at the 2005 World Championships in Madrid.

Prior to joining the USOC, Bob was the Director for the USA National Men?s and Women’s Volleyball team where he was responsible for overall leadership and direction for the USA Volleyball National team programme. Bob was instrumental in rolling out key sports medicine & sports science, sponsorship & marketing, coaching & technical as well as international relations programmes. This included developing and executing athlete contracts totalling over USD$1 million as well as implementing a National Coach Accreditation programme.

Bob also held the role of Head Women’s Volleyball Coach and Instructor of Physical Education at the United States Military Academy at West Point where he served for 13 years.

He holds two masters degrees from the International Olympic Committee MEMOS** programme (Executive Masters in Sports Organisation Management) and the University of Northern Colorado (Master of arts in physical Education/Sports Management). Bob is happily married with two children.

Bob will report to SSC’s Chief Executive Officer, Oon Jin Teik.

Said Oon: “Our unprecedented sports excellence success in the last few years is a result of strong foundations we’ve built over the years by strengthening NSA’s management and high performance capabilities. For the next phase of growth, SSC will drive a national holistic and integrated approach to enable NSAs to systematically identify, develop and optimise the performance of elite athletes, coaches and officials across the development pathway. Bob’s wealth of management and technical experience at the strategic, tactical and operations level, established networks with the international sporting fraternity and strong ability to build partnerships will help us put in place a national organisational excellence and high performance framework to enable NSAs to achieve sustained competitive excellence at the international level. Bob will also begin putting in place the framework to develop the future Singapore Sports Institute at the Singapore Sports Hub.”

  • NGBs in the USA are the equivalent of National Sports Associations (NSA) in Singapore.

  • MEMOS was founded in Europe in 1995 upon the initiative of several National Olympic Committees, the European Network of Sport Sciences in Higher Education, several universities, and with the financial support of Olympic Solidarity and the European Union Socrates programme. The aim of MEMOS was to provide a higher level of training to European sport managers. In the summer of 2002, the MEMOS Steering Committee voted to adapt the programme for participation internationally. Currently, more than one hundred MEMOS graduates are working in Olympic sports organisations.

David Howard Voth, Senior Director for Marketing

Hailing from Longmont Colorado, USA, David Howard Voth joins SSC as its Senior Director for Sports Marketing on 11 August 2009.

David will be responsible for the commercialisation of sports with a focus on growing the sports sponsorship market, developing and implementing a national sports broadcast strategy, as well as putting in place a framework for sports licensing and merchandising. He has extensive sponsorship, broadcast, licensing, merchandising, marketing, branding and sports events management experience in the sports and entertainment industries.

Prior to joining the SSC, David was Vice President for Marketing & Business Development for USA Rugby, the National Governing Body for Rugby in the USA. Under his leadership, USA Rugby secured USD$4.5 million in sponsorship commitments in 2009, up from USD$60,000 when he first joined in 2006. He was responsible for creating new merchandising, licensing, innovative online and broadcast programmes that raised the profile of Rugby in the USA.

David had also founded/co-founded several consultancy, licensing, entertainment and sports events companies before joining USA Rugby. These include:

1) World Wide Partners (WWP) Inc, a global consulting firm providing promotional event production, original TV programming and sports event development expertise to various industries. WWP’s clients included Coke, Budweiser, Nike, the NFL (American football) and Gatorade.

2) Challenge Group, LLC, an LA based sports, licensing, and entertainment company. David co-created the NFL Quarterback Challenge (an annual competition of National Football League quarterbacks in the USA) and the NFL Quarterback Club (one of the most successful licensing arms within the NFL Players Group).

3) World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), owners of the IronMan Triathlon. David was instrumental in developing and negotiating complex licensing, sponsorship, event, merchandising and entertainment agreements with Fortune 100 companies.

In his early career, David worked in advertising agencies and entertainment companies. This includes his stint at Anheuser-Busch Entertainment Corporation where he was the Brand and Promotions Manager managing a USD$25 million advertising and operations budget.

David holds a BS in Marketing and did graduate work (Statistics & Marketing) at the University of South Florida. He is happily married with two sons.

David will report to Kelven Tan, SSC’s Chief, Sports Marketing.

Other Management Changes at SSC

Wayde Clews, SSC’s Chief for High Performance will relinquish his role and take up a new role as Chief for Sports Industry Development (from 1 August 2009). Under this new portfolio, Wayde will oversee the development of the sports industry, working with the Economic Development Board, other Singapore government agencies as well as international sports organisations to grow the Singapore sports industry. Key focus areas will include developing Singapore as a high performance training hub, sports events bidding and international relations.

“The business of sports in Singapore has grown over the last few years, with the value of the sports industry crossing the S$1 billion mark in 2007. We recognise the Returns on Investments (ROI) that sports business brings to Singapore and that’s why we’ve formed a new group headed by Wayde to take our sports industry development initiatives to the next level. Complementing the work that Wayde will be leading will be the commercialisation of sports. David’s extensive experience in sports sponsorship, broadcasting, licensing and merchandising, in one of the world’s largest sports business markets (USA), will be invaluable in helping us to grow this aspect of Singapore’s sports industry,” said Oon.

Ng Eng Soon, SSC’s Director for NSA Management will relinquish his role and undertake a new portfolio ? Sports Events (from 1 August 2009). Eng Soon will aggregate, consolidate, and optimise Singapore’s expertise and resources in hosting and organising major single-sport and multi-sport sports events while Singapore positions itself as Asia’s leading sports hub.

For media enquiries, please contact:

Alvin Hang
Deputy Director (Corporate Communications)
Singapore Sports Council
DID: 6500 5164
Mobile: 9222 1010
Email: alvin_hang@ssc.gov.sg

About Singapore Sports Council
The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) is Singapore’s lead agency tasked with developing sports in Singapore. Our vision is to create a Sporting Singapore where sport is a way of life. SSC aims to develop sports champions and create enjoyable sporting experiences for Singapore through the three strategic thrusts of cultivating a sporting culture, achieving sports excellence and creating a vibrant sports industry. Formed on 1 October 1973, SSC is a statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. For more information, please visit www.ssc.gov.sg