His most recent accomplishments as CEO of GLORY Sports International were more than tripling media rights revenues in one year, and taking a brand from a virtual unknown to become the third-ranked combat sports competitor, behind only Bellator and UFC, in under one year. He improved every facet of the organization, from upgrading the marketing and public relations campaigns, to substantially improving the media production and content programming, which opened the door to negotiations with Viacom’s Spike TV, and resulted in a multi-year contract with Viacom.
Andrew’s career at WWE encompassed such diverse experience as planning and executing all marketing and promotional campaign activity for live events in the U.S., and also playing a substantial role in increasing the number of Pay-Per-View (PPV) events.
He quickly rose to join an executive team responsible for the WWE Affiliate Syndication network, aligning all market affiliate promotions and marketing campaigns with live and PPV events, further establishing WWE as an entertainment powerhouse in the U.S.
With a limited staff and resources, he then became the sole international executive to lead the company into the global arena. Leveraging the successful strategies he built in the United States, he expanded the live event and ancillary businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and initiated the sale of the brand to the European media as an entertainment franchise. He subsequently spearheaded WWE’s further expansion into both Asia Pacific and Latin America.
As Executive Vice President, International he negotiated the largest Media Rights agreements in WWE International history with News Corp’s BSkyB (UK) Zee Networks Taj TV’s Ten Sports (India) Sumitomo’s JSports (Japan) and Samsung founder company CJ Media (Korea).
Andrew Whitaker was named to World Screen News Three to Watch in 2006, and Television Business International’s Top 20 Achievers of 2004.
He is currently on the International Program Advisory Board for the Banff World Media Festival and nextMedia International Interactive Media Festival. He is a member of The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Mr. Whitaker is a graduate of Syracuse University.
