MAM
ESPN STAR Sports announces new appointments
28 June 2006, New Delhi – ESPN STAR Sports, Asia’s number one sports broadcaster today announced new appointments to its management team with Sharon van Zwieten taking on the role of Executive Producer, News. She takes over from Dez Corkhill, who has moved on to a new role as Executive Producer, Mobile Production.
Sharon will be based in Singapore with region-wide responsibility for the network’s award winning sports news programme, SportsCenter. She will report directly to Huw Bevan, Senior Vice-President, Production.
Sharon is an all-around international communications professional and brings over more than 20 years of experience in broadcast, broadband, online and print media. She began her broadcast career as a reporter, assignment editor and anchor in Iowa, USA, working for KDUB-TV. She later took up News Producer roles across the US before her appointment as Director of Public Relations and Communications for CyberSpace Solutions in Illinois, USA.
The lure of broadcast journalism proved too hard to resist for Sharon and she packed her bags for Asia, with an appointment as Producer for CNBC/Asia Business News where she created and produced dot.com, a weekly half hour show about the Internet. Sharon later joined CNN International in Hong Kong as a Writer and Producer for CNN This Morning Asia.
Sharon moved back to the USA in 2000 where she joined CNN in Atlanta, as Supervising Producer and Executive Producer, where she supervised the newsroom and helped launch Daybreak, CNN’s early morning newscast.
Before joining ESPN STAR Sports, she was Senior Executive Producer at CNN in New York.
Sharon holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and History from the University of Michigan and a Master of Arts in Journalism from Northwestern University.
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 reaching over 138 million households for ESPN and over 63 million households for STAR Sports. We have 13 networks – ESPN Asia, ESPN India, ESPN Taiwan, ESPN Philippines, MBC-ESPN (Korea), ESPN Singapore, ESPN Hong Kong, STAR Sports Asia, STAR Sports India, STAR Sports Taiwan, STAR Sports Singapore, STAR Sports S.E.A and STAR Sports Hong Kong. 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, including the Asian X Games and the San Miguel Asian 9Ball Tour. On- ine, 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 which is closely integrated with ESPN and STAR Sports on air networks, has established the sites as the number one on-line sports destination in their respective markets.
For further information, please contact:
Bhaskar Majumdar, Manager – Corporate Communications, 9811194244, Email: bhaskarm@espnstar.co.in Or Tarundeep Singh, IPAN at 011- 42492100,
9811017310 Email: tarundeep.singh@ipan.com
For the latest schedules and programme information visit www.espnstar.com
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
