SINGAPORE, Aug. 31 --Xinhua-PRNewswire-AsiaNet/InfoQuest Kathy Sun Appointed ESPN Star Sports Managing Director Greater China ESPN Star Sports, Asia's number one sports broadcaster, today announced key changes to its management team aimed at strengthening its operations across China and Taiwan while furthering the network's Greater China strategy. Kathy Sun, formerly Managing Director, ESPN Star Sports Taiwan, has been appointed Managing Director, Greater China, reporting directly to Rik Dovey, Managing Director, ESPN Star Sports. In her expanded role, Sun will assume overall responsibility for Advertising Sales, Distribution, Marketing, Event Management and Business Development across the Greater China region. Rik Dovey, Managing Director, ESPN Star Sports said, "The company is growing from strength to strength, and these management changes are expected to spur us to the next stage of growth. Kathy has played a vital role in building our Taiwan business, demonstrating her ability in some of the toughest situations in the market. Her experience operating sports and media businesses will be invaluable in the company's objectives of growing demand for our on-air networks across Greater China as well as developing new cross straits business opportunities. I have a great deal of confidence in her ability to lead ESPN Star Sports' overall Greater China initiative. " Sun held senior management positions at Reebok-Taiwan and various international media companies, before joining ESPN Star Sports as Managing Director, Taiwan in 2003. ESPN Star Sports China, Managing Director, David Cantalupo will continue in his role heading up all ESPN STAR Sport's China operations including Distribution, Advertising Sales, and Multi-Media Ventures and will report to Sun. The new Managing Director in Taiwan when appointed, will also report to Sun. Cantalupo has been the impetus behind the significant distribution growth of ESPN STAR Sports in China through collaborative efforts with local media partners such as Hunan Satellite and Hainan Travel Satellite. He has also been instrumental in the formation of China's first directly foreign invested Internet and new media joint venture, espnstar.com. Concluded Mr Dovey, "This re-organisation is designed to unleash additional synergies and sharpen our focus to address the Chinese-speaking population from both these key television markets. As part of this growth plan and Greater China strategy, ESPN STAR Sports has also strengthened its Advertising Sales teams across China and Taiwan as well as other key distribution and business development areas. These are exciting times for the network and we look forward to what the future holds.' ESPN STAR Sports is a 50:50 joint venture between two of the world's leading cable and satellite broadcasters ESPN Inc and STAR. We are Asia's complete sports provider that reaches over 128 million households for ESPN and 57 million households for ESPN STAR Sports (as at June 2004). Our 11 networks are ESPN Asia, ESPN India, ESPN Taiwan, ESPN Philippines, MBC-ESPN (Korea), ESPN Singapore, STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Sports Singapore and STAR Sports S.E.A. We bring the world's premier live sports and leading regional events to viewers 24 hours a day. On the ground, the ESPN STAR Sports Event Management Group manages and promotes premier sporting events around Asia. On-line, espnstar.com, espnstar.com.cn and espnstar.com.tw interact with millions of users providing them with in-depth sports news, results and competitions. This multilingual, online platform is closely integrated with ESPN and STAR Sports on air networks and has established the sites as the number one on-line sports destination in their respective markets. Contact ESPN STAR Sports Stephenie Vasko Tel: +65 64886126 [email protected] Cheryl Sim Tel: +65 64886123 [email protected] SOURCE: ESPN Star Sports --Distributed by AsiaNet (www.asianetnews.net)----InfoQuest (SP)--