
Steve Dainton
- 492%
- ITTF Group revenue growth (US$12M → $71M)
- 2025 ✓
- WTT calendar delivered, incl. 4 Grand Smashes
- 20+ yrs
- In international sport
Sport is my passion — it always has been. I built a career around it by combining two things that rarely sit together: business marketing and international relations. That mix is the edge — equally at home negotiating with government ministers and closing commercial deals, and fluent in the mechanics of both. Mandarin fluency extends it further, opening direct, unmediated access to the world's most important and complex sports market.
As Founding CEO of World Table Tennis and Group CEO of the ITTF, I led the most significant structural transformation in table tennis's 100-year history — building WTT from a concept on paper into a global year-round professional series. In 2025 we delivered a full international calendar of events — including four Grand Smashes — after navigating the brutal early years of launching a bold new platform for the sport through the COVID period. Over eight years I grew ITTF Group revenue from US$12M to US$71.1M — a ~6x increase — and delivered the federation's first-ever organisation-wide strategic plan.
Through Pro Sports, I now apply that operator's playbook across sports, federations, governments, broadcasters and brands — with a particular edge across Asia, where relationships and language open doors credentials alone cannot. Creator of The Care Factor™, a proprietary framework that scores sporting events on what actually matters — not just TV ratings.