Supponor Adds Ross Hair as Managing Director and Steve Plunkett as Chief Product Officer

Supponor have made two major appointments to its senior leadership team. These new hires will help scale the company to meet the rapidly increasing market demands for virtual advertising and deliver a raft of new solutions in the coming months.

Broadcast heavyweight Ross Hair joins Supponor as Managing Director and will oversee and lead the company’s ongoing success. Hair brings 25 years of commercial experience to Supponor, building and leading divisions of major media organizations. Most recently he held the role of SVP, Commercial EMEA at Discovery Communications, as well as past roles including Managing Director of ESPN EMEA, and EVP EMEA for Sony Pictures Television International.

“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,” Hair comments. “Supponor’s real-time, streamlined solutions are creating new ways to commercialize 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.”

Product and technology leader Steve Plunkett joins from Ericsson’s Broadcast & Media Services business unit where he was Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Ericsson, Plunkett held roles including Chief Technology Officer at Red Bee Media and Chief Architect at Motorola, leveraging technology to build breakthrough products and services. As Chief Product Officer, 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 many years’ experience in large-scale product innovation to the growing business.

“We are excited to have Steve join the team as we augment the deep talent pool of our core technologists, engineers, and scientists who have been responsible for delivering Supponor’s world-class technology solutions,” comments Vesa Suontama, Chief Technology Officer, Supponor. “His broadcast solutions background is perfectly aligned with the primary areas of growth for our growing product portfolio for streaming/OTT and artificial intelligence.”

“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,” Plunkett adds. “It is an incredibly exciting space and it’s an honor to join the amazing team at Supponor and be part of its future growth.”

“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,” said James B Gambrell, CEO, Supponor. “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.”