GUANGZHOU, China - February 9, 2009 - The 16th Asian Games, Guangzhou 2010 has named Jeff Ruffolo as its Executive Advisor for International Media.
The 16th Asian Games will be held November 12 - 27, 2010 in Guangzhou.
More than 14,000 athletes from 45 countries and regions are expected to compete in 42 sports. Ruffolo, 51, will assist the Asian Games communications staff in managing its English media messages to the more than 10,000 accredited and non-accredited media expected in Guangzhou to cover the Games.
Since March 2007, Ruffolo served as Senior Expert for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad and managed China’s media messages in the Main Press Centre and served as a spokesman for BOCOG on NBC TV, Al Jazeera and Associated Press TV. After the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games, Ruffolo was honored by BOCOG and the Chinese Government and named a “Model Worker” for his training of Olympic staff and senior management.
Ruffolo’s sports and aviation marketing career spans more than 25 years.
He is a three-time Summer Olympic sportscaster for Westwood One, America’s largest radio network, at the 1996 Atlanta, 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Summer Olympic Games. Ruffolo spent nine years as Senior Advisor for China Southern Airlines in Guangzhou and eight years as the radio play-by-play “voice” of the University of Hawaii - Rainbow Sports Radio Network, the Big West Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation.
Ruffolo also served as Sports Information Director for Brigham Young University Hawaii Campus; worked on The White House Advance Staff for US President Ronald Reagan; was Assistant Marketing Director for Heritage Mountain Ski Resort in Provo, Utah and Vice President, Public Relations for Regent Air, the all luxury airline in the mid-1980's and managed the airline’s charter division with clients including the Rolling Stones, Phil Collins and Genesis and the Los Angeles Lakers.
He has been a public speaker at major global forums for leading organizations such as The Economist in Madrid, Athens, London, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. Ruffolo served as President of the Southern California Chapter of Travel Tourism Marketing Association in 1989.
Ruffolo earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Journalism from Brigham Young University, Provo in 1982.