THE SWITCH Leadership
The Switch’s leadership team boasts deep experience in the live TV broadcasting business from many different points of view, including production and sports rights management, enabling us to better understand the challenges our customers face on a daily basis. The Switch has been at the forefront of live sports for nearly 30 years, and so the management team is now building on this legacy to develop new opportunities in markets such as esports, as well as broadening our international business.
Dhaval Ponda
President & CEO
Biography
Dhaval Ponda leads media and entertainment globally at Tata communications. He was part ot the founding media team at the company, and he has been instrumental to establishing Tata Communications as a leader in the increasingly digital, cloud-powered and IP-enabled media and entertainment industry.
Working closely with his team and customers such as Formula 1, Sky, Star India and VICE Media, Dhaval keeps a close eye on the constantly evolving content consumption habits of today’s tech-savvy consumers to help broadcasters and content owners capitalise on the growth opportunities that the rapidly changing global media industry brings. The business has already established itself as one of the fastest growing services companies in the industry with a consistently high NPS & a global footprint in media, broadcast, sports, gaming, e-sports & OTT.
Joseph Cohen
President of The Switch Sports
Biography
Mr. Cohen is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of West Ridge Associates, a sports and media consulting firm, since 2013. West Ridge’s clients include Platinum Equities, a private equity firm, the Cleveland Indians and Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball, and The Switch, a broadcast transmission facilities provider.
Mr. Cohen served as President of Sports at The Switch from 2013 to 2018 as an employee and from 2018 through May 2020 as an independent consultant. He was Chief Executive Officer and Principal Owner of The Switch predecessor companies Hughes Television Network (1985-1989) and HTN Communications, LLC (2003-2013).
Mr. Cohen served in various senior executive roles with Madison Square Garden, including President of MSG Networks (1977-1985), when he was a member of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) television committees. He returned as Executive Vice President of MSG Media & Development (1995-2002).
Mr. Cohen was Chairman of the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL (1993-1995), also serving on the NHL Board of Governors. He was President of Spectacor West and Chief Executive Officer of Spectacor Films (1991-1993), serving on the board of Allied Communications, Inc. (ACI), an independent film distribution company.
He was co-founder and a director of USA Network (1977-1981). Mr. Cohen serves as a director of Madison Square Garden Sports Corp. since April 2020. He also serves as a director of Joe Torre’s Safe At Home Foundation and Maccabi World Union. He serves as a director emeritus of the March of Dimes and trustee emeritus of the California Institute of the Arts.
Recognition of Mr. Cohen includes the Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame and the WWE Hall of Fame, the Sports Business Journal’s Champions Class of 2016, Ellis Island Medal of Honor and Billboard Magazine’s Facilities Manager of the Year (1974 and 1976). Mr. Cohen brings to the Board his long-term experience and knowledge of the sports, entertainment and media industries.
George Lopez
Senior Vice President, Operations
Biography
As Senior Vice President of Operations, George is responsible for the global operations of the company, overseeing teams in the U.S and Europe. George joined The Switch in 2016 with the acquisition of Pacific Television Center. He brings more than 25 years of experienced leadership focusing on developing and delivering technology-driven broadcast and digital media business services and solutions.
With his experience and understanding of broadcast and digital media as SVP of Operations for Pacific Television Center from 1995-2016, George oversaw company growth and expansion into global markets, increasing incremental revenue across North America, EMEA and APAC. With a focus on creating strong partnerships across the world with outstanding client service and purpose driven employees, George believes this will set The Switch apart as we continue to find solutions that meet the customer needs.
George received his BA from Life University, with an emphasis in Leadership Development. He plays basketball and tennis as much as possible, sometimes forgetting he’s no longer 20 years old.
Paul Weldon
Executive Vice President, Sales
Biography
Paul Weldon joined The Switch as Executive Vice President of Global Sales in 2017. Mr. Weldon brings more than 20 years of senior sales management experience in the technology and telecommunications sector, most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Global Sales for CPI through its acquisition of ASC Signal.
Previously, Mr. Weldon was Senior Vice President of Sales for Trusonic, a publicly traded company that provided in-store music and messaging for businesses. He also served as Vice President of Sales for Tolt Service Group, an industry leader in on- site maintenance and break fix for all technology in large retail companies.
During his tenure as VP of Sales, at his previous companies Paul’s sales teams have been responsible for revenue growth of more than a half a billion dollars. Mr. Weldon played professional baseball with the California Angels and received a B.A. in Business Administration from Concordia University in Irvine.
Robert Szabo-Rowe
SVP, Product Management
Biography
Robert joins The Switch as Senior Vice President, Product Management, responsible for the life-cycle management of the products and services offered by The Switch including identifying, launching and managing new differentiated services. Robert brings more than 25 years of senior executive management experience in the technology, media and telecommunications sector, most recently serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager of Live Production and Infrastructure for Snell Advanced Media (SAM) since 2010 through its acquisition by Belden in 2018, responsible for the company’s live broadcast and infrastructure products and their move to IP.
Previously, Robert was Chief Technology Officer for Cambridge Positioning Systems Ltd, a GPS and terrestrial positioning technology company through its sale to Cambridge Silicon Radio (now Qualcomm). He also served as Vice president of Network Design and Technology for Aerial Communications Inc, a mobile network carrier (now part of T-Mobile), responsible for the mobile network procurement, implementation and launch across the United States.
Prior to this, Robert was Technical Director for Telesis Technologies Laboratory under Pacific Bell, was involved in starting what became Orange in the United Kingdom and started his career at British Aerospace, Space Systems. Robert holds a Masters in Communications Engineering from Queen Mary College, University of London.
Kevin O’Meara
Vice President, Marketing
Biography
Kevin joined The Switch in August 2019 as the VP of Marketing. Kevin has 20+ years of Sales and Marketing experience in the technology and media sector, most recently as the Head of Marketing at Snell Advanced Media (SAM) where he led the rebrand of the company and ran the global marketing team up to the purchase by Grass Valley, whereupon he became Head of Product Marketing during the integration period.
Previous roles include UK Sales & Marketing Director for Technicolor Creative Services, Sales and Marketing for Mediasmiths in the UK and running the global marketing for Snell and Wilcox.
Joanna Klein
Associate General Counsel
Biography
Joanna Klein serves as the Associate General Counsel at The Switch. In this role, she has been instrumental in guiding The Switch’s legal activities, including the legal review and negotiation of customer, procurement and carrier contracts, and is the liaison managing outside counsel for major acquisitions. She brings more than 17 years of global legal experience to the team.
Prior to joining The Switch, Joanna served as a senior member of in-house legal teams in organizations such as Paramount, Fox Networks Group, TMF Group, Electrifai and Forescout Technologies. Having previously formed part of The Switch’s legal group from 2016-2018, Joanna was invited to join The Switch’s leadership team in 2022.
She received a Bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University, Master’s degree from New York University, Juris Doctor from Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law, an LL.M. in International Taxation from St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law and an LL.M. in Computer and Communications Law from Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London. Ms. Klein is licensed in the State of Florida and State of New Jersey.
Stacie Kalafa
Director of Human Resources
Biography
Stacie joined The Switch in 2016 and currently serves as the Director of Human Resources. As Director of Human Resources, Stacie has direct responsibility for human resources management and related activities at The Switch, including organizational planning; compensation and benefits; employee relations; recruiting; hiring; learning and development; staffing and employee communications for over 140 employees worldwide. Throughout her tenure with The Switch, Stacie has provided HR leadership, strategy and support to all areas of the Company while also working on complex business transactions.
Stacie brings more than 12 years of global human resources experience to the team. Prior to joining The Switch, Stacie has worked with high growth privately held businesses as well as publicly traded corporations. Stacie received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware and holds a Certificate in Human Resources Management from The Society for Human Resource Management.
