Bio

Football has always been a passion for Gaurav Gala, ever since his formative years growing up in London. He spent nearly nine years in the UK from 1988 to 1996 and completed his O levels (GCSE’s) there. It was during this time that his love affair with sports and in particular football began and has continued ever since. He feels very fortunate that he has been able to create a career in sports over the last two decades and eventually found his way to working in football.

Since 2013, he has been exclusively working on football and looking to grow the world’s most popular sport in India through content creation across Live Broadcast, OTT and Social Media. He’s currently the Head of Broadcast Content for Football Sports Development Limited, which runs and operates the Indian Super League.

During this time, he has worked for and with almost all stakeholders in Indian Football, right from the National Football Federation (AIFF), the country top football league (ISL), the clubs, the broadcasters, the production team, social media teams of the league and clubs, marketing teams and the fans clubs amongst others.

Gaurav started off his career in early 2002 as a Broadcast Journalist, with a specialisation in sports and served as the Sports Editor of the India Today group’s 24 hour English News Channel – India Today. Gaurav was a prominent anchor and reporter having covered some of the biggest sporting events of the time in India and abroad. Some particular highlights include India’s historic cricket tour of Pakistan in 2004 and the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Gaurav has worked across a wide variety of media organisations during his career so far, including CNBC India – TV 18, The India Today Group, The Zee Media Group and the Star TV Network.

Apart from Sports and Media, Gaurav is very passionate about cooking, especially for his family and friends.

Bio coming soon.

Bio

Neel Shah is an experienced sports management professional and educator. He has worked for over two decades on the development and commercialisation of football in North America, Asia, and Europe. In his current position with India On Track, Shah is responsible for running the Global Institute of Sports Business as well as securing new business for the group.

Prior to joining India On Track, Shah was the Chief Executive Officer of DSK Shivajians FC and the Liverpool FC International Academy – DSK. Within this role, Neel oversaw all business operations for the Pune-based professional football club. Before stepping into professional club management, Shah served as the Business Director for Libero Sports. At Libero, he was responsible for guiding and advising Indian football stakeholders with their investments and facilitating strategic partnerships to further the industry. In addition, he created commercially viable avenues for international football entities to enter the Indian
market and has successfully supported football giants Manchester United, FC Barcelona, Liverpool FC, and FC Bayern Munich build their brands and business in India.

Prior to moving to India, Neel spent seven years with New York based Major League Soccer serving as the league’s Director of Fan Development. In that role, he was responsible for overseeing the league’s national grassroots programming, working with MLS clubs to build their local market relevance, and liaising with club supporter groups.

He received his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Economics w/emphasis in Sports Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He then received his MBA in Sports Management from Seton Hall University, located in South Orange, New Jersey.

Shah is also a certified Life Coach and a regular TEDx speaker.

Bio

Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri is a books editor, publisher, writer and critic. In 2017, he was named Editor of the Year by the apex publishing body, Publishing Next. He contributes regularly to a number of publications. He is also a published author, with two books to his credit: Whims – A Book of Poems (published by Writers Workshop) and Icons from Bollywood (published by Penguin/Puffin).