“Rahul Kadavakolu is Vice President of Global Sports Business and Director of the Global Brand Supervisory Department at Rakuten, Inc. He joined Rakuten in 2016 to help lead and drive Rakuten’s global brand and marketing function including all sports and entertainment partnerships.
He has been instrumental in Rakuten signing the global sports and entertainment partnerships with FC Barcelona, Golden State Warriors, NBA, Spartan and Davis Cup, including a multi-continental sponsorship of Messi10, a global show by Cirque du Soleil.
He has built Rakuten’s global brand associations with the company’s brand ambassadors, including Lukas Podolski and Stephen Curry in his ‘Underrated Tour’ bringing to life the key propositions of ‘optimism’ and ‘believein the future’.
Rahul has over 19 years of global marketing and branding experience across various industries with a focus on the IT, internet services and technology sectors. Prior to Rakuten, he held leadership roles at Wipro, Ogilvy and Hakuhodo. He received a Bachelor’s in Commerce from Loyola College, Chennai, India and is an avid cricket fan.”