Supponor strengthens senior leadership team
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Editor
| 26 November 2018

Tapping Talent from Discovery and Ericsson to help scale the company to meet the increasing market demands, virtual sports advertising technology provider Supponor has announced two major appointments to its senior leadership team.

Ross Hair joins as managing director and will oversee and lead the company’s on-going momentum while Steve Plunkett takes on the role of chief product officer.
Hair brings 25 years of commercial experience to Supponor, building and leading divisions of major media organisations. Most recently he held the role of SVP, commercial EMEA at Discovery Communications Inc. His past roles including managing director of ESPN EMEA, and EVP EMEA for Sony Pictures Television International.

Product and technology leader Steve Plunkett joins from Ericsson’s broadcast and media services business unit where he was chief technology officer. Prior to joining Ericsson, he held roles including chief technology officer at Red Bee Media and chief architect at Motorola, leveraging technology innovation to build breakthrough products and services. As chief product officer, Steve Plunkett will be responsible for the product and technology functions within Supponor, leading a team of industry experts in Helsinki and London and applying his experience in large scale product innovation to the growing business.

“As the pioneer and clear market leader in virtual replacement technologies for live sport, our entire efforts are devoted to this field of technology and how it transforms the meaning and economics of brand communication delivered through the medium of sports advertising,” noted Supponor CEO James B Gambrell. “These senior appointments are a testament to what we have already achieved and support our existing team as we continue to develop ever more capable and efficient technologies as we scale our business to meet the rapidly growing demands of rights holders, broadcasters and sponsors.”

Commenting on the appointment, Hair said: “Sport, media and innovative technology are my three great passions so I’m thrilled to be joining the Supponor team to help build on their pioneering work in virtual advertising. Supponor’s real-time, streamlined solutions are creating new ways to commercialise live sport, so I look forward to working with key rights holders and new digital platforms to demonstrate the advances being made - and the opportunities being created”.

Plunkett added: “Supponor combines cutting edge technology and expertise in the areas of sports tech, ad tech and augmented reality into products that serve the most valuable and demanding content in the world – live premium sports. It is an incredibly exciting space and it’s an honour to join the amazing team at Supponor and be part of its future growth.”