Sportvision Enhances Management Team

Sportvision has named Francis Govers as vice president of Engineering and Christine Anderson as creative director.  These new executives, who will be based at the Company’s Mountain View, CA, research and development lab, further supports the Company’s leadership position at the forefront of sports broadcasting and data capture and digital media innovations.

Govers brings more than 30 years of senior level engineering, technology, operations and management experience to the Sportvision team, having served as the technical lead and Chief Engineer for a breadth of technologically advanced organizations and projects.  Govers’ expertise covers many disciplines, including object tracking, telemetry, graphics rendering, 3D video and hardware platforms, data and sensor fusion, robotics and systems engineering, while his leadership and design execution of advanced unmanned vehicles are among his most acclaimed accomplishments.  In his new role, Govers will be responsible for overseeing all research and development, while guiding new product architecture and design execution for the Company’s new and emerging innovations.

Prior to coming to Sportvision, Govers served as Chief Engineer of Land Solutions at Elbit Systems of America (ESA) where he was responsible for the development of new unmanned vehicles, vehicle electronic systems, sensors, remote weapon stations, and more.  He served as Deputy Chief Engineer for Unmanned Ground Vehicles for the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems program.  Previous positions have included leading flight simulation for the Joint Strike Fighter Program; Global Product Manager of Decision Support Systems at Silicon Graphics, Inc.; and Lead Engineer for Command and Control on the International Space Station.  Govers has extensive experience working on several high-profile programs, including the NASA Space Shuttle, NASA International Space Station, and the Defense Satellite Communications System, amongst others.

An Air Force veteran and a commercial rated pilot, Govers is also a nationally published author, artist and photographer, and a regular contributor to Robot Magazine.  Govers has received many awards and accolades for his work including five McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) Space Systems Outstanding Achievement Awards for his contribution to the International Space Station.

Anderson comes to Sportvision from Microsoft, where she spent the past 10 years designing and executing a series of creative projects, including MSN’s most recent and critically applauded U.S. and worldwide re-designs.  At Microsoft, Anderson was responsible for directing the design, research, and writing plans for some of their largest worldwide consumer products, encompassing TV, mobile, Hotmail, Calendar, Web Messenger, MSN, Search, and desktop.  In her leadership role for MSN, she managed an International team of senior design and research directors in Japan, London, Dublin, and the U.S., building critical expertise in cross-cultural experience design.  Other major consumer product campaigns that she was directly involved with include directing the user experience for Windows Live Hotmail and MSN TV2 Internet and Media Player launches, both receiving high critics praise for their ease of use and design savvy.

In her new role at Sportvision, Anderson will be supervising the design, creative direction, and user research of the Company’s new product innovations, with a strong focus on data visualization and product user interface.  Anderson’s expertise includes interactive, mixed media, and cross-device design, and she is adept at creating and mapping user strategies encompassing multiple platforms and devices.

Anderson is an experienced and savvy professional in creating consumer and online user experiences.  A graduate of the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University, Anderson holds multiple user experience patents, and has published and presented a design case study with the premier international conference for human computer interaction.  She and her teams have been featured in major design publications and have been regularly asked to speak at a variety of educational and industry events.  She also served annually as keynote speaker or featured panelist for DigiGirlz, the popular Microsoft program that encourages teenage girls to pursue technology careers.

“Capturing the complete digital record of a sporting event and delivering rich and compelling content across multiple platforms continues to be our strategic growth area,” said Hank Adams, CEO, Sportvision, Inc.  “With Francis and Christine joining the Sportvision executive team, we are bringing in 40+ years of highly technical expertise, creative thinking and management leadership, and I am confident they will serve as valuable contributors to our market-leading products.”